


wander through your thoughts like a broken promise

by Aspidities



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alpha Kara Danvers, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Earth Prime’s Kara and Lena are mated, Eventual Smut, F/F, Omega Lena Luthor, and sex dreams, and they gotta share a bed while Lena is Mad and Sexy, fake marriage au, so much emotional edging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:29:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 57,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22805584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aspidities/pseuds/Aspidities
Summary: The ‘what if everyone thinks they’re married on Earth Prime and Lena still hates Kara’ AU.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 541
Kudos: 4874
Collections: Gays in Earth 38





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am absolutely captivated, captivated I tell you, by the concept of other Earth Lenas and Karas, and it’s a damn shame the CW did not explore that in favor of shoehorning in yet another heterosexual relationship, but thank god for fanfic, right?
> 
> Be warned: I have a thing for Mean Lena and it probably shows. But yes these two dumb babies are gonna be dumb happy together, just wait. Give me like...two more chapters. Maybe four. Who knows. Wheeee.

The world is new, but not new, all at once. 

To Kara, it’s a new and old loss. A strange and persistent tugging at her insides. Earth-38 is where she learned how to ride a bicycle—knock-kneed and too excited for a normal thirteen-year old, pedaling around after Jeremiah in the barn. It’s where she had her first kiss with the first omega she met— Garland Havory—awkward and sweaty against the side of the same barn. It’s where Eliza took her hands and held them close to her chest and told Kara she could either destroy the world or help it with those hands. It’s where she learned of the existence of kittens and puppies and turtles with tiny crocheted sweaters. 

It’s where she met Alex, where she made a home, and where she built a new family. And it’s gone. All gone. 

You’d think Kara would be used to loss of whole worlds, families by now. Maybe even immune. She’s a superhuman, after all. She should have superhuman coping skills. But she’s not, and she doesn’t. 

Earth-Prime is the same, ostensibly. On the outside, it looks identical. But little details are missing—inconsequential, minute things, but all of them are terribly distinct. Noonan’s doesn’t sell pumpkin bagels out of season anymore. The DEO’s alpha blockers are now 250mg, not 200mg. The Lyft symbol is purple instead of pink. Vasquez has a buzzed fade on the right side, not the left, anymore. 

Oh and: Lex Luthor is out of jail and considered a gargantuan philanthropist. And Kara, apparently, works with him. 

It’s monumental, how those distinctions have changed things. 

Now, Kara’s day starts  _ without _ a pumpkin bagel, and she has to go see Lex’s stupid smarmy face every morning on her way to work, smiling magnanimously down at her from billboards and electronic advertisements all over National City. That horrendous TV spot is on incessantly. It plays before the YouTube marathons of rescued pit bull puppies that Kara puts on to soothe her nerves before opening her email. Her own pained, pinched smile echoes back at her through her work laptop screen, like a shattered echo of all her hopes. It’s hell. 

But that’s only the first day. 

The day is bearable. Understandable, even in her frustrations with it. She feels she can handle things by the end of the day—she has J’onn and Alex and Nia and Brainy and even if there’s no pumpkin bagels, there’s at least caramel lattes with ludicrous mountains of whipped cream, and that helps. She’s starting to feel okay.

But when she goes home that night to her apartment, every shred of ‘okay’ that she had raggedly tried to put together promptly fell apart. 

Firstly, her key sticks in the lock, which is funny. Her door only does that usually when she hasn’t been there for a few weeks—the wood of the building is old and swells with disuse. But she doesn’t think much on it. A quick forceful shove and the door gives way. She’ll have to replace a hinge later, but that’s fine—frustration got the better of her for a bit. She just wants to be greeted with something familiar. 

Inside, though, it’s even more confusing. There’s dust on her countertops. Her living room is uncharacteristically neat, with the throw blanket folded to a tight square instead of tossed over the side of the couch. There’s no socks or underwear strewn about. The place looks show-quality clean, which is not in Kara’s usual wheelhouse. 

Criminal of criminal realities, when she checks the fridge, it’s actually  _ empty _ —but for a half-finished six pack, a mustard bottle and a wilted container of lettuce. Kara nearly cries at the sight. It’s altogether too much, at the end of the day. She whips out her phone and pulls up Postmates as fast as she can, already feeling the irritable rumble of her never-ceasing stomach. 

Her hunger is distracting enough that she doesn’t look too closely at all of the framed photographs that have suddenly gathered on every available shelf and hanging in neat archipelagos on the brick wall. She catches a peripheral glimpse of Alex and Lena beaming up from a pair of wine glasses, leaning against each other like old conspirators, and she smiles at it, briefly, but doesn’t consider it again until after she’s munching her way through a small mountain of Thai food, her mouth full of Pad Prik King. 

When she looks closer, her heart drops through her stomach and she almost chokes on a handful of bean sprouts. 

Lena. Almost all of the pictures are of Lena. Kara didn’t notice because, well, to be honest, it’s not too far off from the collection of photos she had at her Earth-38 apartment. But these, like everything else in this new, strange-yet-familiar-world, are different. There’s  _ more _ of them for one. Lena is in every group shot, but there’s also single portraits of her now. Portraits that spell something deeper than friendship. 

Lena with a pair of tortoiseshell glasses perched on her nose, reading under a swath of golden lamplight. Lena at the beach, clutching the brim of her wide black sun hat with one hand, stepping into a white foam wave, and giving the camera the finger with her mouth wide in protesting laughter. Lena grinning up from hugging a ludicrously small goat at what appears to be a petting zoo, dressed in an open sweatshirt, cheeks ruddy and hair gloriously windswept. 

The sweatshirt has Midvale Athletic Department printed on it in block letters. Kara knows that sweatshirt well. She had P.E in it for five years of her life. It hangs off Lena’s collarbones and reveals the peak of one pale, rounded shoulder. 

In her bedroom, the pictures gather on her nightstand and above her bed. They’re more... _ intimate _ ...here. Not sexual, but tastefully suggestive. One is of Lena laying on her side, clearly naked under the thin sheet, as the sun rises in the wide windows beyond. Kara’s glasses are on the nightstand, but it looks like Lena’s apartment, judging from the view. Lena is asleep, or perhaps just resting. The pale curve of her breast is just visible below her crooked elbow. 

Kara stares at that picture for a long time before she can see anything else. 

There’s another, clearly a selfie shot, where Kara has Lena in her arms, bare chests pressed together just out of frame. They’re laughing, breathless and sweet, and Lena is looking at Kara like she’s the only thing in existence. A supernova in a dead empty universe. 

If she didn’t know before, the bedroom confirms it. In Earth-Prime, Lena is her lover. Her girlfriend, if not possibly also her  _ mate _ . 

On Earth-38, Lena Luthor hates Kara Danvers,  _ and _ Kara Zor-El in equal measures. Earth-38 Lena is betrayed, and Kara is miserable, guilty, alone. Wanting to apologize but never quite getting the words right. Never quite being enough to express her feelings. She hadn’t really understood them, herself. On Earth-38, Kara had thought the tiny, flickering hope of Lena someday wanting to speak to her again, much less  _ date _ her, was officially extinguished when the omega leveled Kryptonite cannons at Kara’s face. Not that Kara had blamed her. 

But this is not Earth-38. 

Kara backs slowly away from the pictures of a strange, happy life she’s never lived, as if they’re going to bite her, and goes quickly down the hall to lay on her dusty, abandoned couch and try to consider what her next move should be. She puts on The Office, gratified to see her Netflix subscription is still logged into the TV, and tries not to think about what Lena is doing. 

She’s asleep a little before sunrise, drooling onto a throw pillow she doesn’t remember buying, under the heavy, familiar weight of the afghan Eliza knitted for her graduation. Everything is old, and new, and her dreams are scattered, impatient things. Flashes of memories she’s never had. 

***

Lena wakes to the new world with a hangover headache and a horrible taste in her mouth. 

And Lex is there, which doesn’t help. 

She listens to his inevitable-betrayal pitch with half her mind occupied, the other half racing to remember what she knows and does not know. Memories lay themselves out like tableaux—a flash of Hope assimilating Eve, a burn of whiskey in her throat, watching Kara as Supergirl on the news, face twisting in something like anguish. 

There are lots of memories of Kara. Others float in and out—Alex at the DEO, frowning in concern at her, Brainy holding her briefly by the wrist, Kelly’s kind eyes. But it's mostly just memories of Kara. 

Kara, red-faced and tear-streaked, telling her the truth at last, far too late. Kara floating outside her window, eyes solicitous and so, so kind. Kara pressing her cheek, promising never to lie to her again. 

Kara in the scope of her cannons, mouthing her name, eyes wide in resigned sadness and fear. Drained of hope. Drained of  _ herself _ . 

She shakes her head, just a bit, to clear the image, and straightens, refocusing on Lex’s clearly evil plans. She has to parse out what his real intentions are around the sly double-speak, but that’s fine. That’s par for the course with Lex. 

She goes to her office at LuthorCorp to assume what little control she has, and finds they’ve relegated all of her good works and deeds to little more than a PR department. Which her mother now runs, apparently. It’s not the highest tier of earth-shattering revelations she’s had, lately, but it’s up there. 

At least her office is relatively the same, even if her last name mocks her from every branded corner. And Jess is her assistant again, which is nice. She’s missed Jess. Capable and efficient as ever, the beta has prepared her an earl grey tea, taken all of her morning calls, deployed any delegate-able responsibilities to other parties, and provided her with an updated contact list without a single question. 

She hardly notices the grouping of photos on her desk for most of the morning. They’re innocuous. The same silver frames she used for a portrait of her father, the National City skyline, a faded image of her and Andrea from college, James (when they were dating), and, last-but-most-often-touched-fondly— a single photo of her and Kara that she’d later smashed in a fit of terrifyingly painful grief. She doesn’t even wonder at the reappearance of that photo, until lunchtime and Jess arrives, bearing a sushi platter from Yojimbo, and then she’s distracted by her sashimi. 

At least that hasn’t changed in quality. 

By the time lunch is wrapping up, with a full belly and her headache easing off at last, Lena decides it’s time to make the best of her fresh start. So what if her family has once again greedily devoured her old successes and meaningful resources? So what if she’s once again under the thumb of her malignant brother and his inevitable backstabbing? She doesn’t have friends, or family, but that’s nothing. When she came to National City three years ago, she had less. She can start again. 

“Jess,” she wipes a fleck of wasabi from her lips, clearing her throat. “Would it be too much trouble for you to update my Tinder profile? I know it’s been forever, but I feel like a fresh start is always useful, don’t you agree?”

She lifts her head from her sparkling water, but Jess isn’t nodding placidly back at her. Instead, the beta’s mouth is wide open in something akin to shock. Or horror. 

“ _ Tinder? _ ” Jess sputters. It’s rare to see her so off-kilter. Lena is almost in awe. “But….Miss Luthor, has something happened at home?”

“At home?” Lena doesn’t understand. Does she share a mansion with Lex and Lillian again?  _ My God, I hope not. I’ll get the arsenic out tonight.  _

“With Ka—“ Jess looks around as if they’re in a crowded office instead of walled-off in her glass ivory tower. “... _ Supergirl.”  _ She hisses, urgently, eyes rounded in confusion. “Did you two have a fight?”

“A fight?” Lena blinks. Yes, of course she’s had a fight with Supergirl. Several, recently, but she suspects that isn’t what Jess means. Her mind races, and her eyes scan around the room, looking for context clues. A Luthor never likes to feel off-balance. 

And that’s when she sees the photos for the first time. 

Lena swallows. “Oh. Oh no, no we’re fine. No fights.” 

She hasn’t taken her eyes off the one on her desk. It shows her and Kara in a snowy scene, a scarf wrapped around the alpha’s neck in blue and red Supergirl colors. She’s kissing Kara on the cheek, eyelashes closed, lips curled in a smirk where they press to the alpha’s smooth skin. It looks possessive—a claiming gesture. Kara beams up from the frame, looking like she wants to be claimed. 

Lena swallows again, thickly. 

“But….Tinder?” Jess looks like she’s dragging herself up from a well. 

“Is that the one with the image boards?” Quick as a cat, Lena feigns confusion. “You know I get these apps confused. I was just thinking of redecorating my— _ our _ — bedroom with some houseplants and needed inspiration.” 

Her lie is rapidfire and flimsy-thin, but thankfully it seems Jess takes the bait. Her brows lift and her smile spreads with ease. “ _ Ohh _ . That one is  _ Pinterest _ , Miss Luthor. Sorry, I should have remembered. You never really do social media. Tinder is a…” She titters like a schoolgirl instead of a 26-yr old beta in staid Donna Karan. “It’s a dating site.”

“Oh.” Lena feigns fluster. She’s classically trained in that art, after years of having to milk her omega status to schmooze past the Old Boys Alpha Club at Harvard and again at MIT. “No, don’t need that! Thanks Jess, sorry for the confusion.”

“Not a problem, Miss Luthor. I’ll get you set up with a Pinterest board right away. Houseplants, you said?”

Lena sends Jess away with a fake list of preferred greenery and buries her head in her hands when the beta is out the door. Then, after a long, chest-deep sigh, she draws herself back up and makes herself look at the photos. And that requires crossing to the sideboard and pouring herself a stiff drink. 

And another. And another after that. 

***

Kara knows she has to go see Lena. She wakes and thinks  _ I should go see Lena.  _ But then her stomach growls and she realizes she has no ingredients for breakfast. 

So she flies to Noonan’s, once again resigning herself to a pumpkin-deplete morning. 

Mid-morning, and she’s grocery shopping, slightly perturbed to realize her favorite cashier’s hair is now red, not green, and she remembers:  _ I should go see Lena.  _

Guilt twinges in her stomach. She doesn’t know if Lena has her memories back. She should really go see her….

But there is a list of groceries calling her attention and she lets herself be distracted by veering into the cereal aisle. 

Three boxes of Frosted Flakes later, and Kara is almost feeling whole again. She replenishes her apartment with toilet paper, and leaves her sweatpants almost purposefully on the bathroom floor. It feels like making her mark. 

But it’s in the process of this new-memory-making that it hits her that Lena could be completely in the dark, going about her day, and wondering where her Superheroine-girlfriend is, and that twinges at her heart. She can’t let Lena live in the shadow of her not-truths, not again. Her heart couldn’t take another awful confrontation about it. So she gathers herself, emotionally and physically, and touches her hand to her glasses. 

It’s a quick flight to LuthorCorp. Kara’s done it hundreds of times...but that was on Earth-38, where it was L-Corp. She’s even circled it, forlornly, when Lena refused to allow her inside, wondering what her former (?) friend was thinking, doing, feeling. Still, even knowing that Lena could still hate her, it gives her little excited butterflies just seeing the building. 

She smells Lena’s particular sweet pheromone perfume before she lands on the balcony, and her heart  _ thump-thumps _ like a scared rabbit. 

It’s strange. The office looks almost the same, but it’s darker. Less white accenting, more charcoal grey. The flowers on Lena’s desk are replaced by a tray of demurely green succulents. 

Kara can tell by the way Lena’s sitting that she already knows. It’s striking—how much she can tell from those tightly-held shoulders. The ramrod set of her spine. Kara takes a step to the door and instantly knows that this Lena has her memories intact. This Lena is  _ her _ Lena. 

And for a moment, just a moment, all she feels is welcome relief. 

“It’s about time.” Lena’s voice is razor-thin. She doesn’t turn, but she crosses and uncrosses her legs with intent. Kara’s eyes follow the movement of her black-lined nylons without conscious thought. 

She licks her lips. 

“Lena—“ Kara starts, but she doesn’t know what to say. She stops, half in the doorway, and fumbles with her hands. “So, do you—“

“Remember?” Lena gives a short, unpleasant laugh. “Yes. My brother decided to allow me to keep my brain intact, even as he devours my legacy. Nice of you to check in.” 

Even with the sardonic edge to her tone, Kara is relieved. Lena looks angry but  _ whole.  _ With all of her memories, like her and Alex and J’onn. There are many things she will always want Lex Luthor dead for, but this, surprisingly, is not one of them. 

She swallows. Tries again. “I’m glad. I don’t want to—“

“What? Lie to me?” Lena interrupts, sharply. She turns, finally, and Kara’s heart flip flops into her rib cage. She looks  _ angry _ -hot and Kara has always had a hard time with that, even dressed as Supergirl. “Again?”

“Yes.” Kara, as usual, is made helpless by the shifting melange of emotions in her gut. Sometimes it roars out insane things like  _ kiss her  _ and she can’t trust any of it, but the impulses come, nonetheless. “I was coming here to make sure you knew the truth.”

“How very convenient for you.” Lena is unimpressed, plainly, and her brow arch is nearing the skyline. “And I suppose it has nothing to do with the fact that on this Earth apparently you and I are National City’s hottest couple of the moment?” 

Kara’s jaw works but nothing comes out for a long time. She’s sure she’s blushing. She’s never blushed in the suit before. A new experience everyday, apparently. 

“Oh. Yeah. Um. I saw.” She scratches her nape. “There’s some….pictures at my place.”

Lena snorts again, and it’s disturbingly attractive. Kara really needs to examine that, later, but meanwhile Lena is turning again and splaying a sheaf of magazines across her desk. They’re glossy and brightly colored. 

And there are pictures of Lena and Kara in all of them. 

“Ah.”

“Yeah.” Lena indicates the magazines with one irritated hand. “There are  _ lots _ of pictures, Kara. This isn’t going to be an easy damage control PR fix. Everyone sees us as a couple.” 

Kara’s sure her ears are ruby red. Perhaps puce. “Everyone that hasn’t had their memories restored. Which is a very small pool.”

“Yes. Too small. My assistant nearly had a conniption fit when I suggested she help me with my Tinder profile.” 

Lena tosses the words out offhand, fingers dawdling on the front cover of a tabloid, but Kara feels it like a sudden gust of cold wind.  _ Tinder? Is she seeing someone? Does she want to be? _

“Anyway, it’s unacceptable for us to ‘break up’ at this juncture.” Lena uses quote fingers. “So you’re going to need to move back into my penthouse.” She turns her back to Kara, sliding the magazines back into a neat stack. “Preferably tonight.”

“Wait.” Kara is still clinging on to the ‘Tinder’ idea. “Hold on. Move  _ back _ in? With you? Tonight?”

“Yes.” Lena blinks at her, as if she’s being particularly slow. “Surely you’ve seen the soft news item of the evening? Apparently we’re fighting because you slept at your old apartment last night. You were seen buying  _ groceries _ .” She informs the stunned alpha, almost primly. “The paparazzi snapped some great shots of you in a pair of sweatpants that I assume have seen much better days.”

“Oh you’ve got to be—“ Kara swears, neatly and furiously, in Daxamite. Kryptonian is too pure for her emotions. Lena watches her with a cocked head. “How could this possibly be news?”

“National City doesn’t remember any kind of Earth merging.” Lena shrugs, dispassionately. “And the public has fickle memories for big disasters anyway. Celebrity couples, however, have media staying power.”

Kara doesn’t have time to ruminate fully on the deep societal ramifications of that statement. She’s too busy imagining what Lena’s apartment must look like, given the state of her own. She wonders if that’s where her sleep shorts ended up. “We can figure something out. I’ll talk to J’onn.” 

“Good.” Lena nods, brisk as ever. There’s a brief, pressed pause, and then she clears her throat. “But I still think you’ll need to return to my penthouse tonight until something can be done.” Her eyes flick to Kara’s for the first time. “I don’t want a media blitz storm right now when I’m still adjusting to this dimensional realm.” 

It makes sense. Kara knows it does. But her heart thuds solidly anyway in her throat. She tells Lena  _ of course _ with a dry mouth and makes an excuse to fly away. 

***

And that night, everything gets so much more complicated. 

Lena meets her at the door to the penthouse balcony—a spacious expanse featuring two Adirondack chairs and a glass firepit—and she’s wearing a loosely belted house robe and a frown. And not much else. Kara has to swallow rapidly before she can open the door and fix her face into what she hopes isn’t a creepy smile. “Hi. I mean uh, hi.”

“Hi.” Lena replies, cutting a sharp emphasis on the H. “You’re late. I thought we agreed on 10?” Her arms are crossed. The rise of her chest is dotted in feather-light freckles, like cinnamon powder dusting. 

“I know.” Kara’s throat bobs. She’s fighting with her lower instincts, and probably losing, a bit. She resists the urge to pluck self-consciously at the front of her suit. “I got held up. As usual.”

“It’s fine.” Lena relinquishes a sigh and turns on her bare feet, clearly expecting Kara to follow, so she does. She’s so much shorter without her heels, and the alpha is caught up in wonderment over that fact, so much so that she doesn’t notice Lena lead them past the guest room, to the master suite. 

“Oh.” Kara blinks, finally coming up short. “Um. Shouldn’t I stay in the…?” She jerks a thumb back over at the guest room, down the hall, but Lena is already shaking her head, unpinning her hair with a casual toss that sends Kara’s heart ricocheting through her rib cage, 

“I apparently have a very detail-oriented housekeeper who comes Monday through Friday.” Lena explains, crossing to what is clearly her side of the massive bed—Kara can see reading glasses, a bottle of water, an old engineering manual of some kind—and fluffing the pillow. “She’d notice right away if the guest room was used, and I’m sure she’s being paid by my mother. We’re going to have to share the bed.”

Kara had  _ not _ planned on this. She fiddles with her suit, feeling awkward. “Should I...I don’t know if I have clothes here or…?” 

Lena shrugs. “Check the drawers. I’m going to brush my teeth.”

She disappears into the en-suite and Kara has a brief, minor panic attack.  _ Share the bed? Share the bed? Sharethebedsharethebedsharethebed— _

Forcing herself to calm down by massaging the bridge of her nose, Kara focuses her breathing. Meditates for a single second. Then, she sets about looking for clothes. In the bathroom she can hear the water running and she does  _ not _ want to be naked when Lena gets out. It would definitely send the wrong message right about now. 

The first drawer that she carelessly yanks open has rows after rows of neatly folded underwear, smelling distinctly and intimately of Lena under their laundry-fresh detergent scent. They’re all black and mostly very silky or lacy. Kara swallows hard and slams the drawer closed so quickly that she almost damages the frame. 

The next one proves more fruitful, and she’s dressed in a familiar faded grey t-shirt and a pair of old boxers that she recognizes as her own from her Earth-38 closet—just in time for Lena to step out of the bathroom, smelling distinctly minty and missing her robe. 

She’s wearing a thin nightgown that looks satin. Or maybe silk. Kara can’t tell. Either way, it  _ clings _ in a way that makes Kara shudder. 

Lena’s eyebrow arches and Kara prays it’s not in recognition of her stare. “Your toothbrush appears to be in the holder next to mine. I think you’ll know which is which.” 

With that open invitation, Kara goes gratefully to the bathroom and finds her toothbrush, which, as promised, is clearly a model meant for a child, modeled to look like a race car. Kara can see herself picking that out in any universe. She stares at her reflection, foaming silently at the mouth, for what feels like a long time before she spits and rinses. 

When she pads back into the bedroom, Lena is laying on her side, facing away from the door. Her stiffness tells Kara she’s awake. The room is dark, but for the moonlight slanting in from the floor-to-ceiling windows, and Kara climbs into the bed mostly by feel, rather than sight. It’s huge. A massive gulf exists between her and Lena. She rolls onto her back, and clutches the comforter to her chest, aware that she could stretch her arm out and never even touch the omega on the other side. 

“Wow.” Kara chuckles, awkwardly trying to fill the silence. “Lucky this bed is so big, huh? Or we might’ve ended up—“

She doesn’t have an end for that sentence, and cuts herself off, mouth closing ineptly.  _ Why  _ does she always have to say the worst thing around Lena? The internal cringe is so deep she almost doubles over. 

Lena makes a soft  _ hmm  _ noise. It’s noncommittal. There’s blessed silence for a while. A long while. Long enough to make Kara think Lena has fallen asleep. 

And then, in the dark. “Kara?”

“Yes?” Kara’s chest is once more heavy, breathless with anticipation. 

There’s a pause, and then: “This means nothing, you know. I still don’t trust you.”

_ Oh.  _ Kara’s heart feels crushed under a limestone quarry that is slowly filling in. She swallows, tightly. “Okay.”

There’s silence again, for a while. But a question is nagging at the corner of Kara’s mind, so she decides to ask, hell or high water. “Why do this, then? If you don’t trust me.”

Lena is quiet. Kara can hear her breathing. Then she speaks. “Because I also don’t trust this new life. I trust my brother even less. And faced with those options, I suppose, makes one for strange bedfellows in the most literal and accurate sense.” She shifts. “Now go to sleep, Kara. I have a meeting in the morning.”

“Okay.” Kara doesn’t know what it means that Lena isn’t willing to trust Lex, but it’s something. Something more than what she thought. She closes her eyes, and lets the idea of that possibility settle her. 

After long, fitful moments, she sleeps. 

***

The first dream happens there, that night, as she lays stiffly on the edge of Lena’s bed. It’s not a bad dream. In fact, she’d probably have to say it’s up there in the top ten best dreams of her life. But it’s so startling and confusing that when she wakes, she doesn’t know where or who she is for a long second. 

In the dream, she’s laying in bed. This bed. The sheets wind loosely around her hips and she’s laying with her arms crossed against the headboard. The view from the windows is a red, bloody sunset, spreading over the city below. She feels relaxed, comforted. Home. 

“Hey you.” The soft voice comes from the warm weight on her chest. She looks down into a mess of black curls and soft green-blue.  _ Lena.  _ She’s naked, pressed to Kara’s skin with possessive thoroughness. The scent in the air is lush with what they were undoubtably just doing—humid waves of sex. “Where’d you go?”

“Nowhere.” Kara answers, honestly, and lifts Lena’s long fingers to the light. She kisses each knuckle, one by one. It feels blissfully familiar. “Mind empty in a good way.”

Lena’s chuckle is low and throaty, and Kara feels something inside her shift with readiness. “Yeah, I know the feeling.” 

She stretches, and Kara looks down the length of her body as Lena watches her under knowing, dark lashes. It feels decadent to have her so close, so bare. Her thighs move over Kara’s lap and then she’s moving, straddling. Kara’s hands move on autopilot to cup her ass and Lena grins, rocking smugly down against Kara’s sheet-covered lap. Her hands are on Kara’s shoulders, and on her fingers….there’s a glint there, a shine—Kara can’t quite make out what that is, but it’s probably not important, so she refocuses on the lovely sight of Lena’s pink, slightly-upturned nipples. Her breasts have a sweet, pear-like slope and the weight of them looks warm and comforting. She moves a hand from the omega’s ass and—yep, her theory was correct. 

“Such an alpha.” Lena whisper-croons in her ear, teasing. “Gotta have both, huh?”

“I don’t know how people choose.” She confesses to the omega’s smooth neck, nuzzling her lips there with a sigh. “They’re both just— _ yeah _ , so nice.”

“I’m glad my tits and ass make you feel so  _ evocative _ , darling.” Lena presses down with her hips just then in a way that makes Kara’s cock jump. “There we go. You wanna roll that sheet down for me?” 

Kara does as she’s bid, lifting Lena by her one handful as she pushes the sheet greedily down with the other. When her fingers return to the omega’s nipple, a smooth hand is grasping her by the meat of her throbbing shaft, impatient and warm. 

“ _ Lena _ .” She gasps, twitching. 

“Shh.” Lena soothes, lips grazing her forehead. She guides Kara inside with a sigh and a hiss, sinking down, and it’s a  _ hot _ , enveloping dampness. Familiar and yet unfamiliar all at once. It’s  _ slick _ and warm and clinging to her everywhere. 

Kara bucks up, unconscious with desire, and Lena laughs, rolling her head back on those lovely shoulders, beginning a slow, easy roll of her hips. She leans down, smiling to Kara’s eager lips, and her words whisper out. 

“Happy anniversary, my love.”

And Kara, hot with shock and ardor, wakes. 

It’s not morning yet, or if it is, only just. The light is thin and grey. She’s sitting bolt upright, panting despite her very limited need for oxygen, and her heart is hammering away. Her cock is a flagstaff in her sleep shorts, hard as iron and almost painful. She can feel her heartbeat in it. 

Kara looks down at her tented lap with a groan. That’s the last thing she needs Lena to see. “ _ Go away _ .” She hisses. 

Her cock only bobs under her scrutiny, guileless and unrelenting. 

“I hope you don’t expect  _ me _ to handle that.” 

The voice is ruffled from sleep and yet primly distinct. Kara instinctively bunches the sheets over her lap, but Lena is already sighing and rolling out of bed, the mattress hardly dipping at all from her weight. She’s up and pushing her hair into a loose pile on her shoulders, yawning and stretching in a way that is absolutely  _ not _ helping Kara’s erection to go down. 

“I’m sorry.” Kara’s throat bobs helplessly and she doesn’t quite know if she’s apologizing for her erection or just her presence in the first place. “I didn’t mean to um...wake you.”

“You were making noises in your sleep.” Lena informs her, stretching, and Kara can feel heat flush in her chest.  _ Rao. Hope I wasn’t moaning.  _

“I’m going to take a shower. I have a meeting.” Lena seems entirely unfazed by the presence of Kara’s morning wood. Her eyes tilt down at the bunched fabric in Kara’s lap, and the alpha can feel her ears burning red with the shame of Lena’s assessing gaze. “There’s a guest bathroom down the hall. Don’t make a mess of the sheets, yes?” 

And with that, she’s gone, disappearing into the ridiculously giant en-suite with its richly dark Moroccan tile. The sound of the shower fills the air not long after. 

Kara groans and flops back onto the sheets, holding her arm across her eyes. It’s not even 6am yet and it’s already shaping up to be a terrible day. 

***

Once the door is closed, in the shower, Lena takes a slow, shuddering breath. She leans against the tiled wall for a long time, just letting the steam fill the air. She hopes it will be enough to disperse the telltale scent of her pheromone perfume, but it’s probably just barely. 

_ God _ —when she cooked up this harebrained attempt at establishing a good cover she’d never even considered that Kara might get hard. It was inconceivable. Their relationship had been clearly defined before the fallout—Kara was sweet and goofy, simple and kind, and only wanted friendship. Lena was the moody one, the malcontent. The one who would let her thoughts wander sexual places late of a night, places that threatened their friendship. Lena was  _ that _ type. There was never any threat of Kara  _ Danvers _ being sexual around her, however, no—not sweet Kara  _ Danvers _ , who took enough alpha blockers that Lena honestly thought she was an omega for nearly a year. 

But now, with the revelation that Kara is Kara  _ Zor-El _ , Supergirl, National City’s most eligible undated alpha—the possibility of sex seems so much more real. 

Especially with Kara in her dreams like a sudden sickness. 

_ Fuck, what was that about?  _ All night she’d dreamed of Kara. The imagery of it was hauntingly familiar, as if a shadow of another life. Some of it was filled with snatches of kissing, soft words. Things she didn’t know how to process. And then her last dream, still the most vivid if she closes her eyes...

Kara had come to her office, late at night, dressed all in blue and red, an imposing figure against the cut of the thin moon.

“You’re gonna keep doing this, after we talked about it?” Kara appears visibly frustrated, in the dream. She folds her arms. “I told you 10. 10:00. No later. Lena, it’s nearly 12:30.”

“Is it?” Lena’s still leaning over her desk, almost defiantly. “I lost track of time.”

“You did not.” Kara sighs, impatiently. “You turned off all the self care alerts that I put into your phone.”

“I’m a grown woman.” Lena protests. “And you set the alert ringtone to Billie Eilish!”

“Because I knew it would annoy you enough to make you want to turn it off, and thus remember to stop working.” Kara explains, patiently, and Lena briefly considers strangling her.

“I don’t need self-care alerts, Kara. I’m the CEO of this company.” Lena straightens, and stalks over to the alpha, well aware that her heels are making that richly satisfying  _ click _ as she takes her time. She drags a finger up the synthetic fabric of the suit, and is gratified to hear Kara’s slow breath. “Now, you gonna throw a fit like a puppy or are you gonna let me keep working?”

It almost works. She can feel a smirk on her face starting to bloom outwards, and then—

It’s so fast. So sudden. One minute she’s pressed a lacquered fingernail into Supergirl’s broad chest, fully upright and feeling pleasantly in control of the situation and the next, she’s bent over her desk, skirt ripped up to her belly button and heels kicked carelessly apart. 

“You think you’re so funny, huh?” The voice by her ear is a thick, confidant rasp. Barely recognizable as Kara. A hand trails up her leg, past her nylons and finds the strap of her garter, slipping idly under it for a moment. “You may be CEO but you need to remember who’s really boss around here.”

It’s a  _ terrible _ line. Lena’s heard worse from every alpha in every board meeting she’s ever had, from Cincinnati to Dubai. But god, it’s stupid how it  _ works _ when Kara says it—works like nothing ever has. She melts under the touch, whimpering, and her knees are weak, shaken things. 

Kara’s fingers slip higher, and find her feverishly damp under the crotch of her panties, which she pulls carelessly at until the fabric tears away. Easy as a bandaid. God, the  _ strength _ of her. It’s spellbinding. Lena is left bare and shuddering as the heat of her arousal hits the temperature-controlled air of her office. 

“You need a quick reminder, I think.” Kara tells her, bunching her hair in one smooth, confident hand. “Gonna give you a little help with that, okay?”

“ _Yes_.” Lena’s scrabbling on the desk for purchase, mouth hot and desperate against the surface. “ _God_ _yes_ , fuck me, Kara, I—“

There’s a sudden, intense sear of pain against one cheek of her rear end as Kara slaps her, lightning-fast like a snake. She yelps out, unsure if it’s in pain or pleasure, and Kara  _ tsks _ fondly at her. “Manners, baby. Say  _ please _ .”

Then she takes a hold of Lena’s hair in one hand and her hip in the other, and she drives in  _ deep— _

And Lena woke up right then, gasping, in the cold grey light of the bedroom that was now her own. 

Seconds later, before Lena could really process the dream, Kara had bolted awake too, and the presence of her cock was suddenly far too tempting. But Lena was still too hurt and her mind was still too jumbled, so she took the easy way out. The Luthor way out. 

Now, in the shower, with hot droplets scalding across her back, she feels a deep sense of unease. She shouldn’t be shaming Kara for her arousal. It should be expected when an alpha wakes, anyway. Or so she’s heard. 

It’s just….Lena’s never really spent time around alphas. She’s downright avoided them, in fact. Lex and Lillian were far too much to handle, honestly, and it put her off the whole experience. They both expected her to be docile, servile, obedient to their wishes. An  _ omega _ in duty as well as hierarchical place. 

Lena had spent most of her subsequent adult life trying to show anyone and everyone that that was  _ not _ what she was. She’d only dated betas. She’d pegged Jack twice—he said the experience was refreshing but asked her to refrain from asking to do it again—and rode Andrea’s face to an easy, greedy completion in the backseat of her Range Rover in college. She’d haughtily declined the advances of every alpha from Max Lord to Veronica Sinclair with classy aplomb. She was not going to be some mindless little bimbo attending to the whims of alpha cock like it was her will and testament. 

No, not Lena. She was  _ better _ than that. Looked  _ down _ on that. Anti-traditionalist. Feminist. Rationalist. That was she. 

Until Kara Danvers shook up her insides like the contents of a VitaMix blender and rearranged her entire worldview. 

The dream was a symptom of the virus that Lena experienced around Kara. It was like a subliminal whispering message. Constant urges.  _ Kiss her, touch her, see if her cock is as big as it looks through her pants.  _ But she thought, honestly thought, that she had the upper hand. Kara was meek, weak-willed, mild. Kara had broken into a government facility to retrieve Lex’s diaries for her without a second thought. Because Lena  _ asked _ . 

Frankly, Lena had always assumed Kara would be somewhat of an easy pussy-whip. 

But that  _ dream _ . That dream just now. That level of control over her body didn’t feel novel, or spun out of nowhere. It felt  _ real _ . As if it had happened before, many times. As if Dream Kara had known it was going to happen, all along. And so, maybe, had she. 

It was all confusing and arousing and thickly embarrassing given her current very-real houseguest. She didn’t know what to do about it. Lena tilted her face into the shower and just prayed her day would improve from here. 

***

“You’re doing  _ what? _ ”

Kara winced. “Just...keep your voice down. I was up kinda early.” The coffee shop was filled with customers, and it wasn’t as if anyone was really listening, but she felt the need to cringe under Alex’s open-mouthed stare anyway. “And I told you, it’s temporary.”

“So you’ll be  _ temporarily _ sharing a bed with your former best friend. Who—and this is very important that you remember this—“ Alex leaned across the table for emphasis. “—tried to very-not-temporarily  _ murder _ you with Kryptonite just  _ two weeks ago.” _

“She wasn’t  _ trying _ to kill me or she easily could have.” Kara rubs her eyebrows. It feels like a weak defense. She doesn’t even know why Lena didn’t kill her, to be honest. It seems like something Lena’s going to be rather tight-lipped about. “And it was her idea, anyway.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll bet it was.” Alex snorts, knowingly, and Kara sits up straighter. 

“What do you mean by that?” She’s almost suspicious her sister has a mental projector of everything Kara’s been thinking about. “There’s not, like, an ulterior motive or anything, it’s just that—“

“—Everyone on this Earth thinks you and Luthor are hardcore banging.” Alex is already nodding in that irritating way that Kara thinks is reserved exclusively for older siblings. “And, let me guess, she needs to ‘keep appearances up’?”

“Don’t use quote fingers. You look ridiculous.” Kara slaps mildly at Alex’s hand, but the older alpha only grabs her wrist. 

“ _ I _ look ridiculous?” Alex points theatrically at her chest. “ _ I _ look ridiculous? Let me tell you something little Danvers, this is a monumentally—“

“Miss Danvers?” 

The voice that interrupts them is piping, tiny, adorable. Alex releases Kara’s wrist and they both sideways turn to see a young girl, probably not more than twelve at the oldest, beaming up at Kara like she hung the moon. 

“Oh crap.” Alex whispers, under her breath, and Kara quickly elbows her aside. 

“Hi, I’m Kara Danvers, what can I do for you?” She arranges her face in what she hopes is a winning smile. 

“Hi.” The twelve year old gushes, looking totally starstruck. It’s charming—Kara never gets this attention outside of the suit. “Oh gosh. You’re so pretty in person. Um.”

Kara laughs. She can feel Alex’s eyes start to roll, though, so she clears her throat. “Thank you, that’s very nice of you to say.”

“No, thank  _ you _ .” The twelve year old is as firm as only pre-teen emotions can be. She’s staring into Kara’s eyes now, fierce adoration present on every pore. “You’re such an inspiration, Miss Danvers. You and Miss Luthor. I get made fun of a lot, but..” she trails off and Kara’s heart twinges before the girl continues. “But you and Miss Luthor….I just have hope I can be that happy someday.  _ Thank you _ .”

_ Oh dear.  _ Kara’s not going to be able to let herself walk away from this one. She takes the kid’s hand, looks into her eyes. “What’s your name?”

“Mira-Marie-Edgarport.” The kid says, all in one rush, tearing up. 

_ Oh boy.  _

In the end, she signs six photos of herself she’s never seen before for Mira-Marie-Edgarport, and one for her very grateful and profuse mother. They each hug her twice, and then she’s waving them out of the cafe, wiping away the tears in her eyes, before slumping back down to her seat. 

“Well,  _ fuck. _ ” Alex says succinctly. Across the cafe, the waitress beams at Kara. 

“I know. Now you see why I need J’onn’s help.” Kara groans. 

Alex stands, tossing some bills onto the table, and puts her hand out. “Let’s go, dingus. You get to explain to J’onn why you’re one step away from winning National City’s GLAAD awards.”

So they go.

***


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks. I don’t normally write a ton in my notes anymore because I’m a Cool Kid like that, but I wanted to reach out and tell everyone currently stressed out or affected by COVID19 and the ongoing healthcare crisis that I’m with you. I’ve been working more on producing some of my commission prompts and I will be posting more to AO3 so folks have some silly bright smut nonsense to help with the downtimes, as well as continuing this ongoing work in progress story. 
> 
> If reading anything of mine makes your day a little easier, a little less shitty, then I’m gratified. Thank you.

J’onn, is, simply put, not very helpful.

“I have no idea what to tell you.” He’s putting up a mask in his study that wasn’t there on Earth-38, leaning against the step stool as he places it on the hook. “You know I was only able to preserve a few minds before the merge. Trying to undo thousands of memories would be completely impossible, even if there wasn’t all of this persistent photo evidence.”

He gestures, and the opposite wall has some framed articles. Some Kara recognizes as being from his ‘old’ study on Earth-38–a _Supergirl Speaks Up For Alien Rights_ cover from the National City Daily, and an article about his alien therapy group, but there are now more. And again, like her apartment, there’s a distinctive theme. 

Grouped in a clearly-loving display are three framed covers that stand out amid the articles and pictures. Each of them bears Kara’s smiling face. 

And Lena’s. 

_Supergirl Comes Out! National City’s Heroine Talks About Life, Love and Lena Luthor_

_Legendary Icons: National City’s Favorite Couple And Their Impact_

_Stronger Together: How a Super and Luthor Work_

“Holy crap.” Alex whistles, softly, behind her, and Kara is very inclined to agree, but she can’t actually whistle. “They’re a power couple.”

“That’s not all.” J’onn looks at Kara apprehensively. “Kara, have you had a chance to read some of these?” 

“No, I—“ But Kara’s wandered close enough to one cover to catch the tag line. “J’onn, one of these says Kara Danvers. As in my name. With me as Supergirl. And that kid, in the coffee shop—“

“There _is_ no more Kara Danvers.” J’onn says, blunt-but-kind. 

Kara blinks at him, and he continues. 

“I mean. Yes, obviously _you_ exist, and the name Kara Danvers exists, because you’re still a reporter, but your cover is blown. And it’s been blown in this universe for what appears to be a long time. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

“Wait a minute.” Alex is still gathering, but she’s clearly starting to build to a conclusion that Kara is also rapidly coming to herself. “You’re saying in this world….Kara is _out_ in more ways than one?”

“I mean.” J’onn shoots Kara an apologetic look. “Apparently so, yes.”

“No. That’s not.” Kara can’t process this. Several wheels in her brain have stopped running—the hamsters may be dead. “That can’t. J’onn. _How?”_

“Lex Luthor.” He supplies, simply, and points her to a magazine on his desk. Lex’s glittering, unpleasant smile leers up at her from a cover. “He’s your partner now. The main threat behind your identity being a secret was Lex, and his financial backing to your enemies, and now….”

“He already knew I was Supergirl.” Kara is speaking her thoughts aloud as they come, and her brain is staggering back to life. “He told Lena before she...well, before she _thought_ she killed him. So he knows in this universe too? And he _told_ everyone?”

“No, he didn’t.” Another apologetic look from those deep brown eyes. J’onn’s really firing on all ‘Dad’ cylinders right now. “Uh. You did.”

“What?” Alex is sputtering, but Kara can already see the cover in her mind’s eye without around. Her own smiling face mocks her from the center photo. _Supergirl Comes Out!_

“I don’t know why or how, but at some point in Earth-Prime’s timeline, Kara revealed herself to a press conference. She gave a speech—it’s on YouTube.” He motions to the laptop on his desk. “I’ve seen it. She—or you, I guess—talks about hope, and what it means to hope for a brighter world, a world in which she can trust that no one would harm her loved ones for what she represents. Then she takes her glasses off and the suit materializes. It’s pretty moving actually, I—-“ 

J’onn clears his throat quickly at Alex’s scandalized look and straightens. “Anyway, you can watch it yourselves. But I saw your Earth-Prime self at the end—she goes straight down the podium and kisses Lena. And I’d bet it wasn’t a new thing for her, judging by how the two of them...uh, _reacted_ , to each other.” He coughs when Kara looks at him. “So, we can be assured that this happens at a point after you two got together in this timeline.” 

“Well, that’s not very helpful but that’s what we’ve got to work with.” Alex sounds slightly desperate. “And I assume you're already working on a way to undo this?”

“The YouTube video has over eight million views.” J’onn sighs heavily. “There’s no going back from the reveal. We have to go forward with Kara not having a secret identity anymore.” He raises his eyes to them both. “I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do.”

Kara sinks heavily to the nearest cushy armchair and stares blankly ahead. Her hamsters are all off their wheels again and nothing seems to be making sense. She’d like to be more alert and thinking of solutions to keep her simple, happy life as Kara Danvers but she’s so _tired_ and when she tries to think of solutions all that comes up is the image in her dream of Lena smiling, leaning down to kiss her so slow. 

She wonders what it’s like, for this Earth’s Kara, to kiss Lena like that in public. Walk around with her. Buy her donuts and flowers and zip to her office for a mid-day smooch. Without any reservations. Without worrying someone might try to kill her for Lena’s last name or what Kara _is._

She wonders if it's nice. 

She thinks it probably is, and there’s a deep, soul-burning jealousy for a life she’s never lived. A carefree existence she hasn’t experienced, has not even _imagined._ It’s hers now and yet not—Lena _doesn’t_ love her, Lex probably really _is_ trying to kill her, and her identity is more valuable now than ever, but it’s public knowledge. Impossible to protect. Everything is hers and yet not. Here and yet not. 

It’s another world, all over again. 

“Kara.” She looks up to see Alex leaning over her, a hand warm on her shoulder. “Hey. Don’t get too deep in those thoughts, okay? We’re gonna find a way to work through this.”

“What if I can’t keep you safe?” She croaks, looking up into the brown eyes of the first person she’d ever truly wanted to protect. “Lex knows how much you mean to me. How much _family_ means to me.” She casts a wider look at J’onn, and the beta smiles in acknowledgment of her words. “What if I can’t protect you, either of you, anymore?”

“Then we’ll deal with it.” Alex says resolutely, and turns Kara by her chin back to her face. “Look at me, okay? We’ll _deal_ with it.”

J’onn comes to stand beside her, his hand on her shoulder a pleasant coolness from his Martian skin below the image projector. She touches his wrist, warmly, as he speaks. “I’m not giving up on looking into _why_ you revealed your identity, either. There may be clues there that could help us protect your identity and your loved ones, going forward. We’re not helpless, just because we’re on a new Earth. I promise you, Kara.”

“I know.” She tells him, and then Alex. “Thank you.” 

“See, we got this.” Alex claps her on the back, and J’onn squeezes her shoulder briefly before moving on to look at the pile of newsprint on his desk again as Alex goes on. “Besides, I’m more worried about you being safe, right now. You’re the one sharing a bed with Lena while she works with Lex.”

Kara colors, briefly, at the reminder of what awaits her again tonight, and coughs. “She’s not working with Lex. She told me, last night.”

“She could be lying.” Alex argues, and rolls her eyes at Kara’s look. “Don’t give me that. You know I love Lena, and I _know_ she’s not a monster but she’s been hurt and she’s acting kind of crazy right now.”

“She’s not, Alex. I know, I could hear her heartbeat, and you know that helps me tell when people are lying.” Kara pushes herself more upright in the chair, just a little, as her foster sister makes a scoffing noise. “I know it’s not foolproof, but I got the sense that she was choosing to work with me as...well, the lesser of two evils, I guess.” Kara shrugs. “She said she knew she couldn’t trust Lex, or Lillian.”

“I mean, who would? Doesn’t mean she’s trusting _you_.” Alex holds her hands up at Kara’s stony expression. “Don’t look at me like that! You _know_ how she feels about you right now.”

“Yeah.” Kara sighs heavily, and tilts her face to the window. The sun was already sinking into the west, sending blood-orange tendrils through the afternoon rainclouds. Night would be here soon. “I do.”

“So we need to work on a way for you two to break up.” Alex sounds more sure of her theory by the second as she walks in thoughtful circles around the chair. “Maybe we can find someone for her to conveniently cheat on you with. Or maybe she’s got some weird kinks you aren’t into. Maybe we get you a dog she’s allergic to.” She holds her hands up at Kara’s pursed lips. “Hey, I’m just spitballing here.”

“I’m going to veto everything involving the weird kinks.” Kara informs her. “But the break up idea is actually not a bad one.” She sat more upright, considering. “Lena _really_ doesn’t want me in her space right now, and it’s not helping to build trust. At all.” She grimaces, thinking of the incident this morning. “If we could go back to having separate apartments, it’d be easier for us to work on our friendship, I think.” 

Kara looks over to see if J’onn has any thoughts, but he was standing by his desk looking a bit stricken. “J’onn? You’re making a weird face?”

“Yes. Ah.” The Martian beta swallows, slowly. “I’m not sure breaking up is going to be that simple.” 

“Why not?” Alex argues. “Sure, maybe they’re like an ingrained Brangelina thing but we all know they can still go their separate ways, even if a long time has passed. They’re girlfriends, it’s not like they’re—-“ 

She stops, and Kara pales as the same thought occurs to her at the exact moment. 

J’onn picks up a large photo on his desk that had been facing away, and turns it regretfully over to Alex’s reaching hand. She grabs it, and immediately groans, dropping the frame into Kara’s lap. Kara picks it up and—

“Oh.” She whispers. Her lips are dry. They’re a Sahara desert, but she has no way to moisten them. Her tongue has retreated into her mouth like a roll-up blind. 

Ostensibly, it’s a gorgeous photo. It’s sunset, at Brookside Beach, one of Kara’s favorite spots—and also one of Lena’s favorite early-morning jogging routes that Kara has definitely spied on for _safety_ and _not_ because of the omega’s penchant for skin-tight Lululemon leggings—and the photo is taken at the end of the jetty, one of the long spits of rock that jut into the ocean. There’s a couple standing in front of a line of folding chairs with people leaning and smiling in them. An archway. A glorious amount of flowers. 

Lena Luthor looks absolutely stunning in her wedding dress, but there was never going to be any other option, of course. It’s got lace coming up her neck, and her hair is swept into this loose configuration of knots that leaves the back of her neck exposed. The ivory cream of the dress sets off the red of her lips, and the shine of her eyes as she looks up at Kara, her hands wrapped around the alpha’s fingers. 

Kara is in a suit that looks like it cost more than her month’s salary and probably feels as good as it looks. She’s holding Lena’s gaze like it’s the only thing that will ever matter to her again, and she’s smiling, and maybe has been crying, a bit. It looks like the best day of Kara’s life, caught in a single moment. She looks gloriously, radiantly _happy_ in a way Kara’s not sure if she’s ever truly been in her own universe. 

J'onn, quietly, and brings her back to reality with a snap up of her chin. He shifts. 

“There’s really no easy way to say this but….” He hisses through his teeth. “Apparently I officiated your wedding two years ago. In this reality, you and Lena Luthor are, um, married.”

“Crap.” Kara says, softly, and next to her, she hears Alex muffle a much more fervent curse and drop heavily to the floor. 

****

After briefly reviving Alex with a few beers and some solid whacks to the back, Kara leaves J’onn’s place with a prickly feeling between her shoulder blades and a lot of anxiety building in her stomach. She flies to her favorite shawarma cart for some reassurance in the form of grilled chicken pieces, and sat on the curb by the food cart pod for a long time, getting grease all over the button-up she’d found in the walk-in closet—that she and Lena apparently shared—this morning. She’s staring blankly ahead and she’s sure she looks like a total wreck to the other customers, waiting in line and milling around the carts, but she can’t be bothered to fix herself up for what could be waiting paparazzi. There’s a drained sense of resignation in her bones, but her toes keep twitching with nerves. Her brain feels empty, and yet restless. 

She orders two more portions to go, and flies away with them before she can ruminate too long on what it means that she’s now going home to her _wife._

Lena isn’t at the apartment when she arrives, so Kara mightily restrains herself from eating both shawarma portions and settles herself on the couch with a bowl of microwave popcorn instead, determined to catch up on the latest season of Brooklyn 99. Comedy will definitely help her heal from her terrible-no-good-very-bad day of revelations, and thankfully the pantry at this apartment seems to be stocked for a Super, so she digs in with a relish. 

She gets about halfway into the second episode before sleep catches her and she goes under, willingly, popcorn bowl on her chest and hand drooping to the floor as she drools on the throw pillow under her head, dozing. 

The dream comes on fast, this time. It feels like her eyes close and then immediately open again. 

She’s back in her old apartment, on her old couch, watching old Brooklyn 99 episodes, when the door bursts open. She’s Supergirl, and she’s always telling Alex she doesn’t need a lock, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t surprised as heck when Lena appears in her kitchen, and slams the door shut behind her back. She’s dripping wet from the rain outside, and gasping as if she rain up all six flights of stairs and she’s looking at Kara wide-eyed, like she’s just seen a ghost. 

“Lena!” The bowl of popcorn tumbles to the ground, but it’s mostly burnt kernels, so Kara doesn’t care. She leaps to her feet, and has to avoid using super speed to get to Lena’s side as fast as she wants. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? What’s going on?”

Lena looks up at her through soaked lashes, her mascara running, her lips parted with the red of her lipstick smeared, just a little. She looks _gorgeous_ and suddenly Kara’s lungs want to gasp right along with her. 

“I know.” She says. “I know who you are.”

Kara’s heart plummets to the bottom of the ocean. She opens and closes her mouth, but no words come for a long time. Just the start of words. “I—I—-“

“I know you’re Supergirl.” Lena says, and Kara can’t tell between the rain and the runny mascara but it looks like she’s been crying. “I know—“ a strange, high giggle escapes her and she claps a hand over her mouth. “I know that you’ve been _lying_ to me for years.” 

Kara’s heart is in the Mariana Trench. It’s so deep even Bob Ballard couldn’t pull it back out. She’s helpless, wordless, and she knows Lena is going to leave. Lena is going to hate her. Lena is going to—

Lena grabs her by the hem of her worn-out shirt—it says _I’m Dino-Myte_ and there’s a T-Rex giving a thumbs up—and her fingers wind into the holes at the bottom. Her eyes are wide and luminous and _so green_ that Kara feels like she could photosynthesize. “I don’t care.” She tells Kara, and another high, bizarre laugh escapes. “Do you hear me? I don’t care.”

“But—“ Kara wets her lips. Lena won’t stop staring at them and she’s worried there’s a pimple on them or something. She’s not sure why she’s arguing against this, but Lena seems so…. _intense_ ...right now. “But I lied to you. You said it yourself. And I’m sorry, Lena, I’m so _sorry_ , but it doesn’t make it okay.”

Lena’s nodding rapidly, jerking her head up and down. She’s got another hand curling around Kara’s neck. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”

“Why don’t you care? Why—“

Kara’s question is muffled into Lena’s lips, and it doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter at all. Lena’s kiss is hot and seeking and desperate, and there’s a searing, instant connection to it that blows all her other meager experiences of kisses out of the water. She cups her hands around Lena’s trembling shoulders and kisses her back, so thoroughly that the omega moans and breaks off to tilt her head back, and then Kara’s kissing her neck and _wow_. 

It’s amazing how good Lena’s rain-soaked skin tastes under her greedy mouth. 

Somehow they end up on the floor of the kitchen. Kara doesn’t remember moving, but they’re there, on the ground, shucking out of clothes before she knows what’s happening. And she wants to protest, she wants to take Lena back to her bedroom like a real alpha, like a gentleman, but Lena pulls her shirt over her head in a fit of passion and unhooks her bra in nearly the same instant, shaking her hair out, and Kara’s eyes focus and unfocus for several long, blissful seconds until she decides staying put is just fine too. 

When she puts her hot mouth on Lena’s nipple, tongue slowly circling, she hears the omega murmur her name. “ _Kara,_ I’m so glad it’s you.”

And then again, more insistently. “Kara. You’re getting popcorn everywhere.” 

Kara frowns, and tries to look up at Lena, but when she blinks again, the Lena that’s leaning over her is fully clothed, hair neatly pinned and makeup impeccable. She’s frowning, a bit, but she’s close enough that Kara can smell her perfume and her hand is on Kara’s side. 

And, of course, she’s hard again. 

“Here, let me.” Lena lifts the bowl from her chest, and sweeps the fallen kernels into her palm. Her fingers skitter over Kara’s clothed chest like they’re afraid to fully touch her, and it’s such a jarring difference from her dream that Kara starts to sit up, over the omega’s protests, knocking the remaining pieces to the ground. “Oh, now you’ve gotten it everywhere.”

“Lena.” Kara blinks, and watches as the omega ducks to gather the spill on the ground, her hand cupped meticulously. The slacks she’s wearing pull tight across the curve of her ass and Kara swallows, looking quickly away. “What time is it?”

“Late.” The omega tells her, dropping her handful into the mostly-empty bowl and picking it up. Kara’s head swivels to follow her as she takes it into the kitchen. “I had meetings all day. And I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

Kara laughs, short and hardly controlled. “Uh, yeah. Um, me too.”

“Don’t tell me J’onn can’t fix this.” Lena stops on her way back from the kitchen, brushing down her blazer with one palm. Her eyebrow is arched in that angry-hot way that Kara has seen terrify several world leaders. 

“Um.” Kara swallows. She bunches the blanket a little more firmly over her erection, but it doesn’t appear to be going away soon, _damn_ her alpha body. “Okay, I won’t tell you that J’onn can’t fix this.”

“You’re kidding.” Lena drops her mouth open. “Is there more? You look like there’s more. Stop fidgeting and _tell me._ ”

“We’re married.” Kara blurts out. It’s not how she wants to say it, but it just sort of falls out. Lena’s mouth is a perfect ‘o’. “Yeah. We’re married. J’onn can’t fix it because we’re married. So.” She blunders on, helplessly. “And I guess everyone knows I’m Kara Danvers. I mean. Supergirl. Everyone knows Supergirl is Kara Danvers.”

Lena’s mouth closes on a snap. She looks at Kara, then the floor, then the ceiling. Kara could swear she was counting to ten. Then she whirls on one heel and heads resolutely to the kitchen. “I need a drink.”

“Yeah.” Kara swallows miserably, sinking her head back onto the couch cushions. “Me too.”

***

Lena’s had a very hard day. 

In the morning, a security guard clearly looked her up and down as if he knew what kind of night she’d had, and she made a mental note to have him fired until he asked her if she knew she’d spilled coffee on her dress. She’d had to change in her office after Jess brought her a new outfit, but the morning meeting went on as planned, anyway, and Lena had to pretend she didn’t have a distinctive brown splash all down her front. 

Her day didn’t improve after lunch either. Her brother kept pushing Non Nocere on her all afternoon like it wasn’t obvious what he was asking for, really, and kept up his emotional manipulation until Lena was tired and almost nauseous from the constant pressure of stepping around promising him what he wanted. She hates when Lex gets frighteningly dogged like this. She’s seen it before when he started to fixate on Superman. He can’t be distracted or dissuaded. He’s one mind, wholly focused on his goal. 

And Lena’s worried about what she’s seeing from the bits and pieces he allows her access to. The scraps. If it’s as bad as she thinks, then it’s really, _really_ bad. 

She’s not sure she can stop him alone, even working from the inside. 

Worryingly, sometimes she thinks it’d be easier not to. To just let him have his fun. It’d be so easy to just step aside and let him take her research. So much less effort than fighting him, trying to outsmart him, trying to be _good_. It’s so hard to be good. 

She’s not sure it’s ever going to be worth it.

And then she gets home and Kara’s moaning her name on the couch. 

Half of Lena wants to close the door, slip her heels off, pull her pants down and climb aboard the alpha’s prominent erection until she rides herself to a happy grave. Hadn’t she earned that, after all? It’s so hard being good. So _hard_. And Kara is—

The other half throws cold water on her face and makes her blink awake. Kara is a _liar_. Kara _isn’t_ her friend. Kara _is_ going to spill popcorn all over the leather couch. 

So she sighs and kicks her heels off and goes to wake Kara before the kernels get crushed everywhere, but they do, anyway. 

And then Kara tells her the news. 

And she decides there’s no point in remaining sober for the rest of this evening. Or, perhaps, ever. Her therapist would tell her this is not a healthy coping mechanism but that’s her therapist from Earth-38 and she’s not even sure Dr Koenig is alive on Earth-Prime, so fuck it. Fuck it _all._

Her hands are trembling when she pulls the wine fridge open, her fingers shaking so hard that she can hardly grasp the neck of a bottle. A _lot_ inside her wants to curl up in her bed alone and cry, but she can’t do that. It’s not her bed alone anymore. Kara is here, and she might do something utterly disastrous like try to _comfort_ her, and Lena can’t have that. Not in this vulnerable state. So drinking it is. 

She’s married. _Married._ To her ex-best friend, ex-....something. Ex-not-quite-lover. Ex-maybe. Ex-never. 

But not in this universe, because _never_ is apparently _now_. 

God, she’s tired, tired, _tired,_ and the weight of everything is getting to her, because she sets the glass down too hard and it makes an ominous whacking sound that can’t bode well for it’s viability and she can’t seem to get the cork out, despite years of training. 

“Here.” Kara has somehow materialized behind her in a second. _Right, super speed._

Her murmur is soft as her hands as she takes the wine opener from Lena and removes the cork with fluid efficiency. For a moment, Lena is struck staring at her hands. How big they are. How strong _._ How did she never notice how strong Kara’s hands were before?

“How much do you want?” Kara is clearing her throat, awkwardly, tilting the wine neck over the glass in expectation. Lena wants to tell her that the first swig is all cork, and that she should toss it, but her lips close and she just takes the bottle from Kara’s hands and pours it into the glass until it’s full. “Oh. A lot. I see.”

“Don’t judge me.” Lena downs about half the glass in a smooth gulp that has Kara’s eyes widening. “I’ve had a very hard day.”

“I know.” Kara says softly. _Too_ softly. Lena can’t deal with that right now, so she takes the bottle and the glass and moves to the couch, setting them down on the glass coffee table with a definitive _thunk_. 

“Careful.” Kara moves after her, touching her elbow, and Lena wrenches away, skin prickling at the place where her fingers had rested. 

“I don’t need a nursemaid. Just a fake wife, apparently.” She swallows the rest of the glass and pours herself another, angrily spilling a little over the sides. Her vision has started to blur already which is unlike her—in college she would have finished this bottle alone and still been sober enough to make fun of Andrea’s dates.

It’s only until after she’s downed the second glass that she remembers she hasn’t eaten today since breakfast. She meant to, she really did, but the day got away from her and the salad Jess had ordered her for lunch went untouched to her work fridge for a later that never came. Now she’s drunk, truly drunk, from two glasses of a weak-bodied Merlot. It’s laughable. She feels like a mess. 

“Lena.” Kara takes the glass from her fingers and she doesn’t protest. “I know this is all impossible and so exhausting, okay? I know. But you have to believe me when I say we’re going to find a way to work it out.” 

Her eyes are so dreadfully earnest. Lena might throw up. Or kiss her. _God,_ which would be worse?

“I know you’re hurting and you’re scared.” ( _Damn_ Kara and her sweetly soothing voice.) “I know you don’t want to trust me or anyone right now, and that’s okay. I’m not asking for you to trust me. I just want you to know that everything will be okay.”

Her eyes flick over Lena’s chest, just once. Just long enough for Lena to know she’s thinking about it. Just enough to heat up under her skin with the potential of that quick, guilty glance. 

There. That’s something Lena can latch onto. She’s spoiling for a fight. Emotions roiling and uncomfortable in her gut. Anger makes so much more sense right now. 

“That’s all you can say? _‘Everything will be okay?_ ’” 

Kara is already recoiling when she explodes, but she pushes forward, nail jabbing into the solid brick wall that is the alpha’s broad chest. 

“By God, you’re either the worst Hallmark card I’ve ever read or just superbly bad at your choice of platitudes. I’m not going to spend the rest of my life sharing your bed and having myself called Mrs. Luthor-Danvers like I’m some kind of retired women’s studies professor. That is not _okay_ with me.” 

“Lena, we’re all trying our best, okay? It’s not like—“

“Oh, I know _all_ about your best.” Lena’s sneer was perfected under Lillian and it’s god-tier. She can see herself reflected in Kara’s wide eyes, looking like a complete Park Avenue bitch, but she can’t stop now. “You did your _best_ to protect me by putting me in harms way for four years while you figured out if I was trustworthy enough to be let in on your identity.” 

That hurt. She can tell, and for a fiendish second, Lena knows she’s found a way to wound a Kryptonian more effectively than her brother ever has. Kara’s eyes widen, then close briefly, and she takes in a deep, counseling breath before opening them again, and when she does, she’s _angry_. Lena shivers and it _should_ be from fear but it’s not—it’s in something like delicious anticipation. 

Because it's actually _disturbing_ how hot Kara looks when she gets angry. 

“I would never put you in harm’s way.” Kara tells her, sharp and vehement through her teeth. “You need to _stop,_ Lena. You can’t blame me for what this universe is asking of us.”

“Oh it’s the _universe_ now?” 

Lena laughs, aware that it’s a nasty, trilling sound. She doesn’t care. 

“Last I checked my brother wasn’t the only one manning a facility capable of maintaining or destroying memories. How do I know you didn’t have your friends at the DEO whip up some extra details with this universe to keep me creatively bound to you?” She leans into Kara’s space, pressing her palm to her chest faux-seductively. “I know how much you’d like me to be your little _pet_.”

“That’s _enough_.” 

Kara’s face is so red. It’s almost beautiful. Lena wonders if the alpha might actually slap her. The idea, shamefully, makes her absurdly wet. 

“You’re drunk.”

“Should I mention the not-so-little trousers tent you’re popping now or do you want me to wait until _after_ we’ve gone to bed together?” 

She gives a long, meaningful drag of her eyes down to Kara’s groin and the alpha blushes even harder, if it were possible. “Yeah, I thought so. All you want is to control me, Kara. I think it makes you _hard_. _I_ think—“

“I _think_ ,” Kara interrupts Lena’s fervent steamrolling by taking hold of the wrist pushing into her chest, cutting sharply into her sentence. Their faces are close enough for Lena to see how her lips are curled in a snarl, and the fleck of spit at the corner of Kara’s cheek. “I think you’ve had too much to drink, and you need to go to bed, because you’re jumping to conclusions that aren’t there.”

“Jumping to conclusions? What is this, the Phantom-Fucking-Tollbooth?” Lena tries to wrench away, but Kara only pulls her wrist gently-but-firmly away from their bodies. Which only brings her closer, crushed chest-to-chest with the alpha as she struggles. “The only conclusion here is a factual one. You’re always trying to control me. You think I _need_ it.”

“Yeah? That’s what you think?” 

Kara’s lips are so close to her cheek as she tries to wiggle free that she can feel her teeth. Her breath is hot on Lena’s ear, and everywhere that damp air spills lights Lena’s skin up with flying sparks like downed power lines. She feels suddenly very aware of how close they are, and stills, momentarily disoriented, and that’s when Kara strikes. 

Her other hand slides up Lena’s back, searing her skin the whole way, and tugs into her hair. Just once. Just gently. The gasp that she lets out is involuntary and embarrassingly needy. When her eyes fly open, she’s looking into Kara’s angry, teeth-gritting face, and her body instinctively slackens in surrender. _Fuck._

“I think you _want_ to be controlled, Lena. I think you crave it. But I think you’re scared and hurt and you’re real good at lashing out, just like a wounded animal, and you won’t ever get what you crave so long as you keep trying to bite the hand that’s trying to feed you, do you understand?” 

She shakes Lena’s head a little, fingers knotting in her hair at the base of her skull, and Lena nods, quickly, jerking her head up and down. She feels dazed, hot, cunt twitching and gripping around nothing. Her thighs flex and tighten and she looks into Kara’s eyes, helpless in the sudden wake of her lusts. Wets her lips. 

A moment dangles, Damocles-like, on the precipice. 

But it passes. 

Something in her eyes maybe tells Kara the wrong thing, because the alpha looks guiltily away and her hand slithers out from under the weight of Lena’s hair. The omega almost moans at the loss. It’s embarrassing how quickly that one gesture had her _ready._ She really needs to examine that, at a later date, but for now, the mood has turned serious. 

Kara doesn’t seem to be processing well. She’s released her hold on Lena’s wrist and her hair, and she’s looking at her hands as if she doesn’t know who they belong to. Her brow furrows further, and instead of looking at Lena, she elects to scoop her up, bridal-style, speaking to the air just above her head. “I’m sorry. You need sleep. We both do. C’mon.”

Lena can’t really resist, so she’s carried to the bed and deposited there, somewhat tenderly, all while Kara refuses to look at her. The alpha doesn’t even tell her goodnight—she just retreats back out the bedroom door, closes it, and disappears down the hall. Shortly after, Lena can hear the faint strains of Brooklyn 99’s theme playing, and she knows Kara won’t be back to bed for a while. Perhaps ever. 

Unfortunate, of course, because as soon as she hit the bed, Lena’s feeling unpleasantly sober and staring at the ceiling replaying every cruel word she said. 

It’s a long night, after that. 

***


	3. Chapter 3

Kara doesn’t sleep very well. 

She berates herself into something like a stupor, there in the living room after she’s deposited Lena in the bedroom. She doesn’t remember thinking about gripping into the omega’s hair—she just remembers _doing_ it, and the thrilling surge of heat when Lena gasped at the fist tightening at the base of her scalp. Dreamlike, almost encased in satin. It was an unconscious movement. And _then_ , the slow, dawning horror that this was _not_ a dream and Lena had absolutely _not_ consented to this intimate violation of her personal space and Kara had felt the world sink back in like a punch to the gut. 

She goes to the couch in a stunned daze, and stays there, unable to think beyond _what was I thinking?_

She isn’t thinking sometimes around Lena. She’s _reacting_. And it’s terrifying. 

The couch is hard and thin under her back, and the lights from the TV keep her half-awake, irritated and uneasy, but the silence is too much for her to turn it off. There’s so much light in the city at night anyway, so much noise and activity. She can hardly focus on any one thing at once, and her periodic drifts into fitful sleep are often marred by hypnic jerks as she comes awake to the sound of a siren or a sudden yell, convinced that Lena is hurt, Lena is in trouble. She has to train herself to tune it out, but by the time grey dawn is approaching, she’s probably only slept an hour or two. 

The noise begins to lull by six am or so, and it somehow gets quieter with the buzz of traffic below providing an almost-white-noise effect. She blames that for why she falls back asleep, deep and solidly at last, snoring into the overstuffed throw pillows that hurt her neck. Kara sleeps like that, dead to the world, for at least another four hours, until she hears the keys jingling in the door. 

Her eyes fly open. Those are unfamiliar keys. A professional, distinct jangling, as if the key was one of many. A soft, off-key hum in what is probably Croatian. _The housekeeper._

Kara is up and flying off the couch before she can fully process that she’s awake. The TV is off with a click and she’s superspeeding back into the master bedroom, door shutting behind her back with a heavy force. She’s too busy panting and congratulating herself on her quick reaction even in deep sleep to remember that she hasn’t heard Lena leave yet this morning either which means—-

“Kara?” Lena is sitting up on the bed, sleep rumpled and clad only in a grey pair of panties, bare legs shifting up into bent mountains under the sheet. “What’s—

“Housekeeper.” She manages to croak, before averting her eyes. Lena isn’t wearing a bra. Or a shirt. And the sheet is….not even close. 

Her nipples are a perfect, blushing shade of rose. 

“Shit.” Lena rolls off the bed and pulls a black bra from the floor, hitching it around her back. Kara almost sighs, torn between relief and disappointment as the omega comes closer to the door, listening with her. “She’s not supposed to be here until eleven, I thought.”

“It’s 10:47.” Kara tells her, automatically, courtesy of her internal clock, and then cringes at the mortified look on Lena’s face. 

“I can’t believe I slept this late.” She mutters, shaking out her hair. “I usually always go into the lab on Thursdays.”

“I didn’t wake up either.” They share a glance. 

_Rao, what is wrong with me?_ Kara is quick to berate herself even as her eyes can’t help but track down Lena’s body. _I can’t believe what I said last night. What I did. She should throw me out._ She shudders, deep and guilty in her Galahad soul. 

“Kara, about last night—“ Lena begins, wetting her lips, but at that moment the housekeeper calls out merrily in an accented voice. 

“Hello, anyone home?”

 _Should I answer_ she mouths at Lena but the omega shakes her head. 

“We’re both supposed to be at work.” She hisses under her breath. “Remember? If she thinks we stayed home it better be because we’re fucking, not fighting.”

“Why would that be—“ Kara starts, but they’re both interrupted by the sound of a vacuum cleaner roaring to life and a jangle of unfamiliar pop music. 

“Just _shh_ and get on the bed.” Lena hisses at her, and, improbably having decided this as the best course of action, clambers back onto the California king with a hasty scramble. Her panties are riding up and exposing the curve of one gorgeously-pale butt cheek, reddened along her thigh from the crease of the sheets. “Lock the door—if she gets closer we can make some sounds and scare her off.”

Kara colors deep purple and tries to think of one, just one, good reason that she can use to verbalize why this is a _terrible_ idea, but Lena cuts her eyes again and Kara withers on the spot. 

“Um. We could. Um. Just go out there? And tell her I came down with something? And to come back next week?”

“You want us to look the happy couple, right?” Lena folds her arms and the rise of her unhappy cleavage is terrifically distracting. “Happy couples _fuck_.” She enunciates the word with acid precision, and Kara winces. 

“You’re clearly a newbie at this whole life-under-a-magnifying-glass thing so let me explain: better our maid go gossiping to the tabloids that we were too _preoccupied_ to notice her than the juicy gossip item that we were sleeping in separate bedrooms and clearly wanting privacy to argue.” 

“But how is that a news item?” Kara argues, futilely. “People _fight_. Surely that’s not unheard of to anyone.”

Lena rolls her pretty green eyes and Kara is once again torn between the urge to shake the arrogance out of her and kiss her at the same time. “ _People_ fight. _Celebrities_ are either happy in love or on the verge of divorce. There is no in between for the public eye. You need to learn this now or we’ll find ourselves the subject of a very bad Taylor Swift song.”

The vacuum rumbles implacably on in the background, and the roar becomes slightly louder, as if the housekeeper has turned closer to the hallway leading to the bedrooms, and Kara nearly jumps in response. She turns the lock, and steps away from the door as if it’s on fire, but then there’s the problem of the _bed_ , and here she stalls out, unsure. 

Lena can see her indecision, and responds with a calm pat-pat to the bedsheets, as if she is calling a well-trained dog. 

Shamefully or not, it works. 

Kara shuffles to the bed and climbs aboard, shooting furtive looks at the hallway as the vacuum sound gets louder. _What now_ she mouths at Lena, but the omega just tugs at her shoulders, trying to get Kara to lay down. The alpha complies, emotions warring in a trifecta of overwhelmed and confused and guiltily aroused, and sucks in a breath as Lena positions herself close, wiggling her rear end into Kara’s front. 

“Just spoon me and lay still in case she has a door key.” Lena’s whisper is barely above a breath but of course, Kara can hear her as clearly as if she was speaking normally. “If she gets close, start moaning or something.”

 _Or something._ The blood is rushing to Kara’s groin and she shifts, uncomfortably aware of pressure in her lower half. Lena’s barely-covered ass is emitting an enticing warmth and it’s almost impossible not to want to press closer. 

They lay still together, listening as one for the sound of the vacuum. Kara can hear so much more of course—the tinny sound of cheerful music coming from what must be phone speakers, the shuffling of the housekeeper’s practical shoes with their economical rubber soles, and the periodic spritzing and wiping of some kind of cleaning spray. The tearing of the paper towel sounds like the snap of a downed tree limb to her over-alert senses. She can also hear Lena’s heartbeat strumming away in anxiety and the all-but-imperceptible sounds of her breath, her lungs shifting and contracting, or the movement of her throat as she swallows. Lena’s skin is warm from sleep, and the back of her neck has a soft, vulnerable scent, tangled in the loose waves of her hair. 

Kara wants to hold her. Not just lay stiff as boards in bed together, listening for the housekeeper. She wants to slip her arm around Lena’s waist, fingers spanning over her lower belly, and pull her closer, slip the other arm under the pillow beneath the omega’s head. Hitch her hips up so they’re snug, fit together like puzzle pieces. 

Like the desire to pull Lena’s hair, last night, it comes on like a sudden sickness, and Kara is dizzy with it. 

Luckily, Lena chooses that moment to move, slightly, or Kara is certain she’d have reached out for the omega like a lifeline in a stormy sea. “God, this is going to take forever. This penthouse is far too large for my tastes.”

Kara lets out a surprised chortle that she has to smother into the nearby pillows. “That’s definitely something we can both agree on.”

She can hear Lena’s smile when she speaks, and it warms her insides so instantly that for a moment it’s like nothing has changed between them and they’re still friends. “I know, right? I think this universe’s version of me has gaudier tastes and I do _not_ approve.”

“Better hope she doesn’t start cleaning that weird chandelier thing in the kitchen or we’ll be here all day.” Kara offers, and they share a muted, muffled laugh.

For a moment, it’s almost….nice. 

Then Lena moves, again, and her ass presses into Kara’s groin with an almost agonizing innocence as the omega lifts her head to listen closer. Kara bites her lip and swallows back the urge to grunt at the delicious heat of her barely-covered skin. Her cock is eager now, rising from its slumber, and immune to the guilty screech in her brain. _I can’t believe you’re getting hard. Do not get hard. Do_ **not** _. Stop it._

 _Can’t help it._ Her lower, more primitive self replies, as if speaking for her dick with absolute authority. _Feels nice. Warm. Round._

“I think she’s turned off the vacuum now, finally. If she gets closer to the hallway again we should start up with the porn noises. That should send her off, don’t you think?” 

Lena turns her head a bit, to catch Kara’s eye, and the alpha has to quickly try to school her face out of what she’s sure was a slightly-glazed expression. 

“Um. Yeah. Whatever you think will work.” She agrees, throat bobbing tightly. Her hand clenches on her own hip, unconsciously. 

Lena’s eyes narrow, just the slightest, and _oh_ that is not helping because Kara is rapidly realizing she has a Thing for how hot Lena looks when she’s angry, even just a little annoyed. The omega’s eyes sweep down to where Kara’s hips are pressed to her own rear, and she looks back up at Kara, incredulously. “Are you _kidding_ me right now?”

“Ah. What?” Kara asks, through a rapidly closing windpipe. 

“Kara, are you _hard_ right now?” Lena hisses, and _Mother of Rao, this should not be working_ but the shame is really _doing_ something for her, and Kara is definitely going to need to sit down with a paid therapist later but in the meantime—

“Do not tell me you’re actually getting off on this. Do _not_.” Lena’s eyes are all glittery and sexy and daggering at her like little green razor blades and Kara helplessly feels a surge of blood in her lower regions. 

“I can’t help it!” She croaks out on a thin whine, gesturing at Lena’s butt, which is still firmly snuggled into the curve of her hips. “It’s an instinct!”

Lena’s brows narrow in that obliquely attractive way that is _not helping at all_ and she opens her mouth to retort—

But then freezes as they both hear the music drawing closer, and the soft humm of the housekeeper as she begins to clean the picture frames in the hallway. Kara is drowning in a tangle of guilt and arousal, and she goes to move away, determined to keep her unruly dick as far from Lena’s tempting flesh as possible, but the omega’s hand flies out to grab her hip. 

“Stay _still_.” She instructs Kara, under her breath. “Just...stay there.”

Kara’s fingers flex in the air, hovering, but finally she grounds her palm on the sheet beside Lena’s waist, and twists into the fabric. Her forearm rests against the omega’s belly and the feel of her is an electric tingle, like licking a 9-volt battery—which, to Kara’s credit, she’d only ever allowed Alex to trick her into doing _once_ —but Kara manages to keep still as she lets her fitful limb come to a careful rest on Lena’s body. They lay twined close as a letter in an envelope, listening for the sound of careless footfalls. 

Kara is hard now, _hard_ and her pulse is racing in her gullet and her thighs, tensed against every part of Lena. She can smell her hair, gloriously dense with expensive product, and the heat of her skin is thrilling, dangerous. She wants to moan, she wants to rock forward and grip into plush softness, nuzzling against that arrogantly arched neck. She wants Lena to cry out, and sigh, and whimper. 

It’s only when the sound of the housekeeper’s toneless whistling cuts through the aroused fog of her confused brain that she remembers that that’s entirely the object of their confusing predicament. 

Before she can think too clearly or get too embarrassed, she lifts her head from the pillow and lets out a deep, bass groan, using her hand to rock the mattress with the rising rumble of her voice so the headboard knocks slowly into the wall. The noise of it comes not fully from within her, but perhaps beyond her—deeper, to an instinctive alpha tide that she is holding back one-handed. Lena startles, beside her, looking back at Kara with rounded, darkened eyes, and for a moment, she thinks the omega has forgotten the whole plot. She thinks she sees unchained arousal in those flashing, forested eyes. 

For a breathless instant, Kara forgets every single universe except this one. 

And then Lena arches against her and lets out a high-pitched, breathy yelp, just loud enough to be heard over the muffled speakers, and Kara feels it land right at the base of her cock. 

_It’s just for show._ She repeats to herself, as her pulse starts to soar madly with the heat of her increasing desire. _Just for show just for show just for_ **_show_ ** _._

She answers back with a baritone grunt, and shakes the bedframe again for emphasis. Lena is looking directly into her eyes now, round and dark and sparkling with something she can’t quite divine but _wants to_ —and the omega moans right into her face, throaty and full. _She’s challenging me_. Kara realizes with an electric charge that thrills her.

The housekeeper has gone very still and quiet, probably panicking in the realization that she’s not alone, but Kara doesn’t care about that. She’s forgotten the housekeeper even exists. Instead, she leans into Lena’s space, deliberately pressing closer, and growls, deep and long, like she’s heard alphas do in porn. It’s obscene, but it _works_ . Lena almost gasps back at her, but then, devilish and completely _unfair_ , she rolls her hips against Kara’s erection with firm, deliberate slowness. 

The game is on, and all other thoughts are unimportant, forgotten. Kara grunts and rattles the bed, unaware that she’s beginning to thrust, slowly, against Lena’s warm little ass, as Lena lets out breathless little yelps and rising, tantalizing moans, twisting her upper body so she can look directly into Kara’s eyes as if she _knows_ the effect she has. _Knows_ , yes, and _likes_ it. Pre-cum is staining the front of her briefs, and her thoughts are starting to become unhinged, untrustworthy. All she can feel is the hot, heavy pressure rolling against her front, urging her to push back, to thrust and rut and hump until she _spills_ , inside or not, all over Lena. 

_Pull her panties to one side_ , her maddened brain supplies, quite unhelpfully. _Push in before she can draw a breath. Fill her up like a freight train._

“God Kara,” Lena breathes out, lips inches from her own, eyes dropped in clear pleasure. “I want you to fuck me so _hard_.”

And Kara doesn’t know anymore what’s for show. She doesn’t care. Kara almost kisses her, right then, eyes dark and breathing hard as her hips rock slowly into Lena from behind through two scant layers of fabric—

But then the rustling, hushed sound of the cleaning supplies being packed up and the door being shoved hastily open interrupts the dreamlike spell she’s under, and she blinks, pupils slowly returning as her hands still on the bed. Lena lets out a high, pleading whimper and _wiggles_ as if she wants Kara to fuck her, _really_ fuck her—no show needed—but when she sees how Kara has gone still looking at the door, she quiets abruptly and stiffens. 

The audible click of the heavy metal door breaks the madness of their twined bodies like a shotgun report. Kara can hear the housekeeper chuckling to herself, somewhat breathlessly, all the way down to the penthouse elevator, and the pleasant sound of it wakes her like a slap to the face. 

Lena twists away from her quickly, too quickly, and laughs, high in her throat, drawing herself up on her elbows. She’s breathing hard and her face and chest is flushed. “Well. I think that worked.”

“Yeah.” Kara croaks out. Her chest is still compressed and her voice is a rumble that makes Lena’s heart rate skip, just a beat, before resuming its hummingbird pace. She can hear Lena swallow, and it makes her tense with thick, uncertain feelings. 

“Sorry about the...ah…” For a moment Lena looks absurdly flustered. Kara’s never seen her so unsettled, and it’s definitely going to be a fond memory. She’s gesturing vaguely in the direction of Kara’s bulging briefs, refusing to make eye contact as if she doesn’t want to look directly into the sun. “Um. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I know it’s...natural.”

“Yeah.” Kara says, haplessly. That seems to be all her blood-deprived brain wants to come up with. 

Lena up and rolling off the bed, backing away like Kara’s cock is going to start a forest fire. She’s looking somewhere above Kara’s head. A light fixture, maybe.

“I’m going to. Um. Go to the lab now.” Her voice is half a squeak. Kara can only nod dumbly as Lena fumbles behind her for the door to the walk-in. “I’ll uh. See you tonight.”

Kara can’t muster up the correct words for a goodbye, which is fine, because Lena’s already disappeared into the closet without a second look. The door clicks with a resounding firmness. It only takes a minute or two before Kara hears the water turn on in the adjoining bathroom, and she rolls onto her back, releasing a deep breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. 

When she opens her eyes again, her cock is still standing firm at attention, like a flagstaff in the middle of the bed. She looks down at it, dismayed, and then up at the ceiling. And for the first time in her life, she feels like swearing. 

“Fuck.” Kara says, quietly, and then covers her mouth as an uncontrollable wave of giggles renders her momentarily undone. 

***

Lena leaves the penthouse in a daze, hardly aware that she’s even showered and dressed. She doesn’t really remember putting clothes on, but thankfully her unconscious brain selected a sensible charcoal blazer and pencil skirt, and she looks presentable enough for the lab. Even late as she very much is.

Her heels click solidly on the floor as she leaves the lobby for her waiting towncar, but her brain is several miles above the ceiling. She murmurs a _thank you_ to her driver, but is otherwise silent, staring out the window on the way to LuthorCorp while her mind races. The scenery flashes by in blurs of blue and green and black. 

She doesn’t know what she’s feeling. Not truly. It’s a mish mash. A mess. A part of her is still in that bed. A part of her wants to have never left. 

A part of her wants Kara to have made those noises real. Wrung them from her throat with the devastating intensity that she saw in the alpha’s eyes during their faux-coupling. That same part of her wants to go back into the bedroom, rip down those sodden, ruined briefs and service her alpha’s throbbing erection with her hands, mouth, cunt—anything that Kara wants, because it’s unfair to leave her unstimulated. 

But it’s crazy to think that way. Insane. She can’t bounce between emotions like this. Sadness, anger, arousal. She’ll never survive the mental anguish of it all. 

She’s processing, still not fully up to speed, and it’s in this fragile emotional state that she runs into the last person she wants to see under such circumstances. 

Her mother. 

“Just what in the _hell_ are you thinking?” Lillian Luthor asks, by way of greeting, as Lena hangs her coat on the hook by the door. She’s almost resplendent in her fury, incandescent. Lena hasn’t seen her this mad since she had to collect Lena from the principal’s office in boarding school for getting drunk during morning mass. The older beta is practically vibrating with anger. 

“Hello to you too, Mother.” Lena replies, readying herself for the onslaught with a hefty sigh. “I was going to ask if Lex left your memories intact, but I see now that was an easily answered question.”

“Of course he left my memories.” Lillian says, testily. “For the same reason he left yours: he’s _tormenting_ us.” She gestures at the wall of Lena’s lab, which has grown a large concentration of photos of Kara. “Why else would he allow us to be in this universe of all places?”

“Good to know your prejudices are still in place. I was beginning to wonder.” Lena moves past her mother toward the centrifuge, intending to check samples she’s not even sure she still has, but Lillian follows her, snorting like an enraged bull. 

“Don’t be ridiculous. This isn’t about me.” Lillian slams her palm down on Lena’s work table, forcing the omega to meet her eyes. “This is about you and that be-suited and be-spectacled moron playing a very dangerous game that will end in both of your very _foolish_ deaths if you don’t start paying attention.”

“What on Earth are you talking about?” Lena’s already massaging her temple. This is already a long day and it’s only 12pm. 

“I’m talking about you deciding to play pretend wives with Supergirl, that’s what.” Lillian fires back, folding her arms succinctly. Her blazer looks about a dozen times more tailored than Lena’s. “You do know this is playing right into your brother’s hands, correct?”

“I’m not _playing pretend_ —“ Lena starts to protest, and then thinks of an hour ago in her bed, decides that yes, that’s probably exactly what she’s doing, and finds a new tactic. “How is this playing into Lex’s hands? I haven’t even _seen_ him today, and all he wants is my cooperation on that Non Nocere project, which I’m got giving him.” 

“That is _not_ all he wants.” Lillian disavows, firmly. “ _Think_ , girl. Has he said one word to you about your faux-marriage to the Kryptonian? One sneer? One raised eyebrow?” Lillian leans over the table, following Lena’s sudden look of dismay. “Surely he knows by now that you’re living with her. And yet he’s said _nothing_. Is that not suspicious to you?”

 _My God._ Lena is hit by realization as steady as a drowning tide. No. Lex had not spoken to her about Kara, and yes, that was unusual. Particularly given his….nature toward Kryptonians. Lena had been preoccupied with the raging mess of hormones and emotions that was her home life with Kara...far too preoccupied to pay attention to the mercurial nature of the most dangerous man in the world. 

And it is suddenly sharply terrifying that Lex hasn’t commented on Kara at all. Not one word. Lena swallows, rapid and sick-feeling. “Yes. It’s suspicious.”

“You were never overburdened with the quickest of wit, I suppose.” Lillian sniffs. “But really, I expected better of you.”

Lena grimaces under the sting of the insult. She tries not to let those barbs get to her, but they inevitably do. Penance of an emotionally-neglectful childhood, she supposes. “I’ve had a lot on my plate, Mother. Being dropped into a new universe isn’t exactly a day-to-day experience for me.”

“Well, wise up fast.” Lillian walks around the table. “Because you’re days behind and you’ve given him a head start. He chose this world for a _reason_ , Lena. Why else would you suddenly wind up married to your former friend-turned-enemy and I the head of our non-profit division?” Lillian makes a distasteful face. “I’ve never done any charitable work in my life, and I’d have preferred to keep it that way, thank you. No. This is Lex’s doing. He’s punishing us for moving against him—you when you shot him, and me when I tried to poison his tea in the Oval Office.” 

“So you’re saying this is penance? He wants me to suffer being fake-married to Kara?” Lena tries not to feel incredulous, but she can’t help but think this is light work compared to her brother’s previous vendettas. As upsetting as it is living with the constant reminder of Kara’s betrayal and what she once meant to Lena, it’s certainly not as bad as physical torture. And Lex _excels_ at physical torture. 

“No.” Lillian says, simply. “He wants to distract you long enough to get to her, somehow, and I doubt he’d care much if you were in the way, either. Making you expendable is just collateral damage for him to ensure a world with one less Kryptonian. A world he already essentially controls, mind you.”

Lena feels the blood drain from her face. God, she feels _stupid_ now for not seeing it before, but of course that’s Lex’s plan. Isolate, distract, destroy. It’s his M.O all over. 

“Now you’re catching on. Good, I didn’t want to draw you a diagram.” Lillian sniffs. “While you play happy wives with Supergirl, he’s planning how to take out the frontlines of resistance to his rise to power.” There’s plenty of respect in her voice, and perhaps a hint of pride. “It’s the first rule of a coup. It’s what I taught him.”

“Don’t sound so pleased.” Lena snaps, and Lillian gives her a reproachful look. “Well, I’ve fallen for the bait, now what? You expect me to begin divorce proceedings?”

“Oh no my dear, I agree— you’re in it now.” Lillian leans on her elbows on the table. “You’ve got to keep the pretense going while watching for his every move. It’s going to be dreadfully difficult, and of course, you’ve done that to yourself, as you always do.”

Lena bristles but Lillian isn’t wrong, and the beta knows it. “Why are you even telling me this?” She asks, sharply, feeling the rise of unhappy emotions in her gut. “Why aren’t you running to your precious baby boy and letting him know all of my weaknesses so the two of you can strike together—just like old times?”

There’s a flash of something on Lillian’s face. Emotions move across her brow as fast as summer thunderheads and Lena struggles to keep up. She can see something like guilt, grief, anger, pride, but then the beta’s expression hardens and becomes Gorgon-firm once more. “Perhaps because I don’t want my son to learn he can use my own teachings against me.”

“Perhaps?” Lena is pushing, but there’s something else there, she knows it. 

Lillian refuses to meet her eye, but she shrugs, almost soft in her shoulders for a brief moment. “Or, perhaps you are all that remains to me of Lionel, and sometimes I think that should be protected.” 

She straightens and looks at Lena dead level again. “As blithely naive and overly emotional as you are.”

Lena blinks, slightly stunned. Under the familiar barb are the first real kind words Lillian has said to her in over a decade. Maybe two. She’s lost count. “I had no idea you had such maternal instincts in you.”

“Yes, well.” Lillian tightens her lips. “Don’t anticipate more.”

“I won’t.” Lena says, quietly, but that’s not what she’s really saying, and Lillian knows it. There’s a brief, awkward fiddling with phials as neither wants to be the first to acknowledge the other. 

“You’ll need to put on a good show tonight.” Lillian warns her, finally, straightening her spine. “Lex will be there, and he will definitely be watching you two, so be prepared for him. Make the Kryptonian wear an outfit that does not include a cape.”

“Tonight?” Lena blinks. She’s momentarily lost. “What’s tonight?”

“Didn’t your assistant remind you this morning?” Lillian tsks. “Or at least your Google calendar? It’s the LuthorCorp annual gala tonight. Apparently it’s in spring now, not late fall. New universe and all that.” She flaps a hand. “You and your _wife_ are expected to make an appearance, and it better be all smiles for those cameras, or our stocks will know about it.”

“The gala.” _Oh fuck._ “I’d forgotten. And I...was otherwise occupied, this morning, or I’m sure Jess would have reminded me.”

“Yes, I’m sure you were.” Lillian eyes her with a clearly judgmental brow. “Just be sure it doesn’t slip your mind tonight. You and your pet alpha need to be on your best behavior, too, or your brother will be on you like a hawk.”

“I know that.” Lena snaps, irritated. “Believe me, I know what this charade entails by now.”

“Oh you do, do you?” Lillian snorts, and crosses toward the door, clearly intending to make her exit. “Good, then I suppose you’ve got a plan in place for your heat, then?” 

At Lena’s sudden pale face, Lillian’s smile becomes all-too-knowing. “ _Ah_ . I see. Well, better start planning now, dear daughter, or in a few weeks, the smell of unmated, _unmarried_ omega will swamp this building for miles and give the whole game away.”

And with that deeply unpleasant truth, she leaves, door swinging behind her, and Lena leans onto the table groaning.

She’s not going to get any work done, now. 

Sighing, she gives up and goes for her phone. There’s no use fighting it. It’s time to start planning her day around getting home to Kara if they’re going to get her into a suitable outfit by sundown. 

***  
  



	4. Chapter 4

Kara doesn’t go to work. 

She didn’t even call in. She’s been laying on the bed since Lena left, swiping aimlessly through the same three apps on her phone, wondering what’s become of her life now, because she can’t remember if the person to call for sick days is named Kevin or Keith. It used to be Keith, but she thinks it’s Kevin now. 

But does it really matter? Does anything matter when the constant occupant of her nightly fantasies is hellbent on inadvertently cockteasing her into oblivion?

She hasn’t had this many erections since high school. It’s leaving her feeling very frustrated and inept. And horny, of course. 

But there’s nothing to be done about that. Not unless she wants to feel even  _ more _ guilty. So she ignores her dick as best she can, and thinks of Eliza’s ‘disappointment face’ until she calms down enough that it’s not an issue anymore. 

Finally, when the sun in the sky is bright enough to remind her that resistance to existence is futile, she hauls herself out of bed and puts down her phone, slinking to the shower with a heavy sigh. The water is blessedly hot and she tilts her face into the steam, just letting the water run over her for long minutes. It feels good to give into a pleasurable impulse. Just one. 

After the shower, she feels much brighter, toweling herself off and whistling exuberantly as she parades around the apartment. Something about being clean always brings out the best in her, and her natural optimism wakes from its slumber and begins pointing out all the good things in life again. Like how Lena’s apartment is so high up that she can see peregrine falcons nests in the levels below. And how the kitchen is neatly stocked in her favorite snacks, including those spicy chips that she always gravitates to in the market but never buys. It’s like this universe’s Kara had predicted her tastes, and that’s surprisingly pleasant. 

Not bothering to put on any clothes, she eats the chips naked with a towel around her shoulders, happily absorbing sunlight from the wide windows. No other building is even close enough to see her silhouette, even if they had superpowers, so she feels perfectly safe sitting on the balcony with her butt sticking to the Adirondack chair. She hasn’t had this much natural sun exposure since college, when Alex insisted on trying out the nudist colony at the women’s retreat (for reasons that Kara would shamefully not discern until  _ much _ later when Maggie came into the picture), and it feels good on her shoulders. Her mouth is happily hot from the chips and she has to periodically wipe her hands on the towel, leaving greasy orange smears, but she’s hopeful that she can bundle it into the laundry without Lena noticing. 

Spouses have to have some secrets from each other, after all. 

Devouring an entire bag takes less than twenty minutes, and by the time she’s finished, Kara’s energy cells are fully charged, skin pleasantly humming from all the yellow sun she’s absorbed, and she balls up the chip bag, scoring a solid three-pointer into the garbage bin under the sink as an invisible crowd cheers. Her muscles are flexing and she’s eager to do  _ something  _ with all this bouncing, good-feeling energy. Something that  _ isn’t _ masturbating while thinking about the almost-bump-n-grind she’d had this morning. 

_ Ooh. Maybe someone’s doing a crime.  _

She listens eagerly, hopeful for trouble that could send her into the suit and flying off to hopefully punch some things, but there’s nothing—only the usual afternoon traffic and hubbub. Not even a stolen purse. Her shoulders slump like a sad dog and she mopes for about 10.5 seconds until she spies what looks like a karaoke machine under the blu-ray cabinet. 

_ Oh. Oh yeaaah. _

Kara blames karaoke for what happens next. 

She likes to get involved in karaoke—really  _ sell _ the performance. It’s an art form, after all. She’s getting really into it, holding the wireless mic with two hands, standing on the couch, fully  _ delivering the performance.  _

Which is why she’s also getting kind of hard singing  _ I Feel It Coming,  _ because she’s really trying to  _ sell _ the song to the invisible Lena in her head, and she  _ really _ wants the invisible Lena in her head to  _ feel it coming _ —

So that’s why she’s too preoccupied with her very passionate rendition of The Weeknd to hear Actual Lena opening the door with her key. 

“Kara? Why are you h—- _ oh my God, why are you naked?” _

“Hi!” Kara falls off the couch at Lena‘s yelp of surprise. It’s a natural reflex. She’s up, and springing to her feet, and it’s only when Lena’s shocked eyes drift down to her half-hard, reddened crotch that she remembers the towel and hastily shoves it down over her groin region in a bunched hand. “Wh-what are you doing home so early?”

Lena is holding one hand over her mouth. “I came home to tell you about a gala we have to go to tonight— _ why are you naked.” _

“I took a shower.” Kara’s throat is bobbing. She’s trying to think of better words, more helpful words, but they’ve gone and abandoned her— the mutinous bastards. “Um. I didn’t think anyone would be home.”

“That’s—that’s still not an explanation but okay, fine.” Lena shakes her head. Kara can see her swallow, and suddenly she’s intimately aware of a drifting, pleasing scent coming from Lena’s direction. The omega closes her eyes, though, and doesn’t seem fully capable of speech. “Can-you-please-go-put-some-clothes-on-please?”

In lieu of answering, Kara elects to superspeed to the bedroom. She flings on some sweats and a t-shirt, but when she returns, Lena is no less red-faced and flustered than when she left. If anything, the omega looks like she’s contemplating leaping off the balcony. She can’t seem to look Kara in the eye. 

But she’s definitely still sneaking glances. 

“See?” Kara spreads her hands, as if coaxing a wild deer. “All dressed. I’m sorry to startle you.”

“No, it’s okay.” Lena appears to have centered herself by looking resolutely past Kara’s left ear. “It’s.  _ Ahm _ . Your house too, after all. I should have called. I just came straight home. Old habit I suppose.”

“You’re entitled to your habits.” Her fingers are knitting in the hem of her shirt. She has to make a conscious effort to unclench them. 

Lena shakes her head and gives an odd little laugh. “Yes. Well.”

“Right.” Kara coughs. The awkwardness is thick and it will  _ not go away.  _ “You were saying something about us having to go somewhere?”

“The LuthorCorp Gala.” Lena’s spine straightens, as if the reminder has reinvigorated her native sense of purpose. “It’s tonight, and my mother warned me that our attendance is considered heavily mandatory.” 

“Looking good for the press, right?” Kara asks, feeling on firmer ground as the air lightens. 

“Unfortunately yes.” Lena’s lips quirk. “Do you think there’s a suit somewhere on your side of the walk-in?”

At first, Kara doesn’t quite know what she means. “My suit kinda just comes with whatever I’m wearing, I don’t need to—“

“No, Kara.” Lena cuts her off, but she’s patient. “I mean, like a suit-and-tie suit. The black and white kind, not the super biometric sensory kind.”

“Oh. Crap.” Kara’s shoulders sink in. “It’s going to be one of  _ those _ nights?” 

“Yes. Very much so.” Lena’s lips are fascinating—sometimes they look like she might actually be smiling, or maybe Kara’s just staring too much. “I don’t know of any other kind of appropriate gala wear, unfortunately for you.”

“If I don’t find a suit, do I have to wear a dress?” Kara makes a face. “I really, um, usually hate that.”

“Funny. You usually seem like you pull it off well.” Now Lena is  _ definitely _ smiling—there’s a distinct curl on the side of her mouth that Kara hasn’t seen in months. It lifts her heart straight up to her head. “Anyway, we’ll work something out.”

“Okay, I’ll look.” 

A  _ whoosh _ , and Kara’s in the walk-in closet, filled with the intimidating intimacy of Lena’s perfume. She steels herself to keep from looking at the rows upon rows of slinky dresses on Lena’s side, wondering perhaps which one she’ll pick tonight, and zeroes in on the closet.

There is, indeed, a suit. There’s several, in fact. But they’re all different colors. Which color is best for a gala? Black, grey, pinstripe, navy blue,  _ heck _ ...even bright pink? 

Kara feels a bit inept. “ _ Lena? _ ” She calls. 

“Yes?” The omega pops her head around the side of the open door.  _ That was awfully fast.  _

Kara gestures, wildly. “Which one?”

Lena’s lips curl up in the way that indicates trouble, and indeed, it leads to a very impromptu fashion show. One that Kara absolutely did  _ not _ sign up for and yet finds herself partaking in anyway, as Lena folds hanger after hanger into her arms and imperiously directs her to the bathroom to change. Kara stares at a towel rack full of suits and mouths  _ how did I get here.  _

“The blue first.” Lena says, muffled through the door. “It goes with your complexion.”

So that settles that. 

The suit does something to her jittery nerves. It’s strange. As soon as she’s folding down her cuffs, she feels a weight leave her body. Almost a settling. A smooth, familiar confidence. As if the suit she was putting on was blue and red, not blue and white. 

She puts the jacket on, slicks a hand through her hair and looks at herself in the mirror. She almost doesn’t recognize the alpha that she sees there. It’s herself but….different. More confident, more relaxed in the shoulders, looser in the chest. She smiles, low like she has a secret, and feels the urge to laugh bubble up in her throat before she squashes it into a cough. 

When she comes out of the bathroom, Lena seems to have a similar reaction. 

Or perhaps, slightly more pronounced. 

“Oh.” The omega’s voice has gone slightly lower-pitched, breathy. Kara likes it. “That’s...well, that one looks good on you.”

“Yeah?” Kara stretches out her arms, admiring the color. “I like it too.”

“You didn’t do your tie, though.” Lena points out, and Kara looks down at the dangling ends. 

“Well, yeah, I thought—“

“Here, let me.” Lena seems very focused, so Kara lets her cross over and take hold, her long fingers moving elegantly against her chest. She’s close enough that Kara can smell the sweetness of her breath. It’s intoxicating. 

“There.” Lena pats her tie, tucking the tail end into her blazer. Her fingers graze Kara’s midsection and she can’t help but shiver, a little, at the touch. “Much better.”

When Lena steps away, both of them are breathing a bit harder than they were a minute before. 

“So?” Kara feebly tries to cut the strange, crackling air. “Is this the one?”

Lena appraises her for a long, searching moment, and once again, Kara fights the urge to shudder. 

“Let me see the grey one, too.” She decides, and Kara groans. 

In the end, she tries on the grey, the pink, and even the one patterned in koi fish, before Lena relents and tells her the blue will work the best, after all. 

It’s an uneasy dance between them. Familiar and unfamiliar. Kara wants to crack jokes, but holds herself back, fearing treading too far. She can tell Lena bites her lip a few times too. The silence of what they have not yet said is dense and digs an ever deeper trench between them. Kara doesn’t know yet how to ford it. But she  _ wants _ to. 

Sometimes she thinks Lena  _ wants _ to, too. 

In the end, she’s fidgeting with her tie in the front hallway of the penthouse as dark blankets the evening, and it isn’t until she hears the click of Lena’s heels exiting the bedroom that it occurs to her that she didn’t even ask what the omega would be wearing. 

And  _ oh _ , that was a fatal mistake. 

Lena is in red. Perfect, slinky, clingy red. Kara couldn’t name the designer or style for the life of her—all she knows is it’s  _ red _ and strapless and slit all the way down Lena’s lovely hip and oh  _ Rao— _ it’s sexy as hell. She’s in trouble. This is definitely  _ trouble _ , but all she can do is stand there like a cartoon wolf with ‘aah-ooga’ eyes and try not to pop a boner through the slit in her expensive silk briefs. 

She is not succeeding. 

“Oh.” She swallows. Her mouth is dry. Lena quirks an eyebrow up at her and oh,  _ heck _ , it’s like it’s pulling on the tip of her—-she coughs. “You look. Um. Good?”

“Good?” Lena parrots back at her, and Kara flushes, aware of her error. “Is that a question or a statement?”

“No, it’s definitely—ah. You look good.  _ Great _ , even.” Kara has never felt quite so flustered in all of her life. It feels supremely unfair. She’s  _ Supergirl _ , and she can’t even manage to compliment her fake-wife. “Um. Gorgeous. I like what you’ve done to your hair.”

Lena’s up-do is immaculate as usual. She touches the side of it, as if preening, and Kara can’t help but grin. “Well, thank you.” Her eyes narrow on Kara, though. “Are you...is that just your regular ponytail?”

“Well. Yeah.” Kara tugs on her hair self-consciously. She’s still unused to this very vulnerable world where her secret identity is no more. It feels unsafe. She’s still wearing her glasses, too. 

Or, at least, she was, until Lena makes a little  _ hmph  _ noise and steps closer, fingers closing in on the frame. She takes Kara’s glasses off slowly, almost as if she were undressing her. Kara can only blink helplessly. 

The moment is a flash fire. 

Lena sets the glasses down on the counter behind her. Then she slips her hand into Kara’s ponytail. Her fingers are deft as she pulls at the hairband, loosening it. Kara can smell her so much more now, up close. The soft powdery scent of her deodorant, the acidic alcohol of mouthwash, the clean linen of her dress, the intimate lavender-soft scent of her skin. She closes her eyes as Lena lets her hair down. 

Her fingers clench and unclench, with nowhere to go. 

Lena rummages for something in her purse. Kara can hear it but not see it. She can hear the pumping of some kind of product, then Lena’s hands return, thick with a pleasantly-chemical scent, and damp. They smoothe into her hair at the temples, and grip at the base of her skull, lightly squeezing. It’s so soothing Kara almost wants to fall asleep. Or stand there, forever, letting Lena play with her hair. 

“That’s better.” Lena’s voice is a whisper, and Kara opens her eyes to see her step back, wiping her fingers on a towelette from her purse. “Here, look.”

She turns her compact mirror on Kara, and the alpha squints down at her own reflection. The hair around her shoulders is loose waves of golden wheat, shiny and thick. She looks boyish, confident, dashing. She likes it, and she’s sure Lena can tell by her smile as she shuts the compact. 

“Yeah.” Kara doesn’t know when her voice acquired this new thick gravel road. “Much better.”

There is a thick, poignant silence. Then Lena’s phone buzzes. “Oh, shit. That’ll be the car.”

“Let’s go then.” Kara offers Lena her arm, and, after a moment’s hesitation, the omega takes it. 

***

Lena feels like this is all oddly familiar. As if from a past life. Or maybe a dream. 

Being on Kara’s arm is strangely satisfying. The alpha is every inch the perfect match—she pauses when Lena pauses, smiles when Lena smiles, waves when Lena waves. She even handles the paparazzi with aplomb, stepping swiftly from the car with a quick wave, and leading Lena inside as if she’s done it a thousand times. Her chin never wavers even as the press on the outside call her name. She’s looking at Lena like she’s the only thing that exists, in this or any other universe. 

It’s enormously flattering and Lena wonders just how much of it is for show before they’re swept inside. 

National City’s concert hall is large enough to seat over five hundred, so the crowd must be close to dangerously tipping the fire department’s stringent recommendations. Lena hasn’t seen this many people since the gala she threw for her own rebranded L-Corp, all those years ago. When Supergirl’s arrival was a marvel, not a mockery. Her insides sting at the memory, just a bit, and she looks for a waiter with a tray of champagne flutes right away. 

“Are you alright?” Damn Kara and her impossibly perceptive nature. There’s a frown waiting to happen in the crinkle in her brow. “You look a little—“

“Lena!” 

A familiar voice trills through the low roar of murmuring voices. Andrea is heading toward them, cutting through the crowd as easily as a shark parts a school of herring. Her smile is welcoming, but below it, Lena senses the flash of her teeth. 

Behind her, Kara shifts subtly. 

“Hello lovely.” Andrea busses her cheek, leaning in with possessive thoroughness, and Lena accepts, too startled to do otherwise. She can practically feel Kara’s teeth gritting. 

_ Fantastic, a pissing match between my ex and my fake-wife. Just what I need.  _

“Andrea.” Lena returns to arm’s length after a friendly enough pause. “I’m so delighted you could make it.” 

“I’m delighted you finally arrived.” Andrea teases. Her eyes are sparkling, but they’re not fully directed at Lena—they’re locked on Kara over her shoulder. “Fashionably late may be the Luthor bywords, but I find myself bored to pieces in your absence. You always did know how to  _ spice _ up a party.” 

“Those days are well past me, I’m afraid.” Lena firmly-but-kindly reminds her, but she can see Andrea is going after something like a dog with a bone and nothing will do but to see what it is she wants, so she relents. “But I’m sure we can find something exciting to talk about. Kara, darling, do you mind?”

Kara clearly  _ does _ mind, but she forces out a smile and shakes her head, standing stiffly back from Lena’s side. “Of course not, go...uh...mingle.”

To compensate, Lena gives her arm a quick, furtive squeeze, and leans into her ear: “ _ These places have buffet spreads fit for an alien appetite. Go gorge yourself before they start imposing limits on cocktail shrimp. _ ”

Kara brightens, and favors her with a genuine, glorious smile, before she darts off in the direction of the buffet line. 

Lena watches her go for a split second in something very-much-like fondness, before she returns her attention to Andrea, bracing for the proverbial impact. “Well? Do you have a reason for that little display in front of my wife just now?”

“Your  _ wife _ .” Andrea  _ tsks _ , plainly unimpressed. “Please. I don’t know what little game you’re playing at, but don’t pretend like I’m not aware it's a sham marriage.”

Lena is taken aback, and judging by the curl on Andrea’s lips, she lets it show.  _ Damn it.  _ “You remember then. The merge.”

“Of course.” The beta makes a face. “Your brother made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“He has a habit of doing that.” Lena’s heartbeat is picking up quicker. Suddenly she regrets letting Kara go to the buffet alone. Her eyes are scanning the crowd around Andrea’s shoulder, looking for a familiar oily bald head. “So, tell me. What did my brother offer you in exchange for your work with Acrata?”

“Russell .” Andrea supplies simply. Her mouth is a wry twist, and in that moment, Lena understands. Perhaps all too well—after all, Russell was the man Andrea had left her for. 

“Ah.” Lena is still searching for Lex in the crowd, but she hasn’t spied him yet. “Well, that makes sense. He needed you, and you needed him. However briefly.”

“Lena.” Andrea’s fingers curl around her upper arm and Lena looks down in surprise. “Don’t be obtuse. I traded Acrata for Russell, and your brother plans to trade you for Supergirl. You need to give up this silly charade  _ now _ , while you still can.” 

Before Lena can process the harshness of her words, the beta’s tone is already changing, entreating. “Come away with me. We can take my yacht to the riviera again, like when we were kids. Just you and me...and….”

“And Russell.” Lena finishes, dryly, wrenching her arm free with slightly-more-than-necessary force. “That’s not a triumvirate that interests me, I’m afraid.”

“You’re being petulant. It doesn’t need to be that way.” Andrea reaches for her again, but when Lena steps backwards she sighs, as if Lena is the unreasonable one. “I’m trying to make you understand. There’s no use fighting him. Not this time.” Her eyes attain a faraway glint. “Not this world.” 

“I’ve never kowtowed to my brother a day in my life, and I don’t intend to start now.” Lena feels defiant, hot, restless. She  _ hates _ being talked to like an infant. But at the same time, fear is a molten iron spike at the base of her spine, sparking with anxiety at the honesty in Andrea’s tone. “Whatever he’s planning—“

“—is something to which you are no equal.” Andrea ends her sentence forcefully. “Believe me, Lena. I’ve seen his power before. You know I have. But this time it’s worse. I’m taking Russell and getting out of National City. You need to do the same.”

“I would  _ never _ abandon Kara.” Lena says, without thinking, and blinks. The speed at which the realization comes to her is startling in its bare honesty. 

It appears to startle Andrea also, but before either of them can process fully, a hand is settling onto Lena’s shoulder and a cold feeling creeps up her lower back. 

“There’s my sister. Where have you been hiding?”

***

Kara has quickly made herself known at the buffet. The waitstaff are eyeing her with nervous, unhappy glances as she makes her way steadily through another plate of small appetizers but she shows no sign of stopping yet. The crab cream puffs are really delicious—she’s put away a whole steam tray now, and is excited for more. Lena was right—the rich really do know how to throw a good spread. 

Thinking of Lena makes her pause in the middle of a bite of crudités (Kara would have probably just called them carrots) and she lifts her head up, listening in for the omega’s familiar heartbeat. The crowd is massive, but she finds her in seconds. And Lena is upset, she can tell by how fast her heart is beating.  _ Thump-thump-thump  _ instead of the steady, regular  _ thump-thump _ . 

Kara doesn’t like that. 

She stands up, leaving the tray of cold vegetables and blinis mostly untouched—there are some quiet sighs of relief in the background—and searches for Lena in the crowd.  _ There.  _ By the fountain, talking to—-

_ Oh, not good.  _

Lena is talking to Lex in a low, fervent voice. Her hand gestures are indicating her mood—frustrated, angry. Lex answers her in shorter sentences than she’d like, clearly, judging by the way she rolls her eyes at him. But Kara can’t hear them, for some reason. She’s  _ trying _ , but all she can focus on is Lena’s heartbeat, and the way it makes her inner alpha want to  _ protect _ . 

She doesn’t know what Lena is talking to Lex about, and it makes her anxious. She doesn’t know if Lena is planning something, and that makes her anxious. She knows Lex is a manipulator, and a master one at that, and that makes her  _ very _ anxious, but she can’t just stride up and demand to know what they’re planning or not planning. 

All of the feelings are icky and uncomfortable and Kara still has that deep, thrumming instinct under it all. The instinct screaming for her to knock Lex down and away from her prospective mate. To keep Lena  _ safe _ . 

In the end, that’s the instinct she listens to. 

She’s starting across the dance floor, hands curling into determined fists, but Lena’s eyes lock onto hers, and Kara freezes, unsure of what to do. The omega sees her, and then looks back at Lex. Says something that Kara can tell is biting. And then walks away from him. 

Towards Kara. 

“Do you want to dance?” Is all Lena says when she nearly collides with Kara’s still-frozen form. Her cheeks are all flushed and there’s a hair down from the careful pile on her neck. She looks uncomfortably beautiful. 

“I—what?” Kara’s brain is still processing. She looks over Lena’s shoulder for Lex, but he’s melted away into the crowd. “What were you—“

“It’s nothing.” Lena says, determinedly. “Do you want to dance?”

“Do I—-um, yes?” Kara is still floundering, but the way Lena’s face lights up in something like victory makes her give in to a very unalpha-like mental swoon. Just a bit. 

Lena takes her hand, and they join the crowd waltzing around the floor. 

It’s surreal. Kara’s pretty sure she’s dreamt of something like this. Strange and beautiful, yet familiar. Lena presses close to her, hands on Kara’s shoulders and twined with her own fingers, and Kara improbably finds herself with a hand on the small of Lena’s back. They stumble on each other’s feet a bit, finding the rhythm and Lena laughs. 

“I’m terrible at this. Can you tell?” Her eyes have a wicked green flash. She looks like she’s confessing something. 

“No worse than I am.” Kara spins Lena around as best she can, and their clumsy feet tangle, bringing them close again. “Whoops, sorry.”

“Don’t, it’s okay.” Lena’s hand leaves her shoulder for a moment to press more firmly against the back of Kara’s hand on her back. “Just hold me closer. Like that.”

_ Rao.  _

They’re pressed close now, and they must look intimate as any other couple on the floor. Lena rests her chin against Kara’s chest, and closes her eyes, and Kara feels the warmth of her with every ounce of her being. Her body sings at the contact, lighting up all of her nerve endings. 

It’s also lighting up lower down. 

_ Not now.  _ She pleads silently with her burgeoning erection.  _ Please not now.  _ Her head swivels, looking for something—anything—to distract her, and she spies Lex, watching them dance. His mouth is twisted into a smile that looks very much like distaste. He must sense her looking, because he meets her eyes, just once. It chills her blood. 

But, unfortunately, the more primitive of her alpha instincts takes that as a threat, and rises up in challenge. The stiffness in her lower body only engorges further, and she finds herself holding Lena closer. Tighter. 

The omega feels it, then, because she hardly has any other choice. Lena’s eyes flash, and Kara draws guiltily back, anticipating anger before the omega even speaks. “Kara, are you—“

“Mrs. Luthor-Danvers?” 

Kara snaps her head back to acknowledge the beta leaning to tap Lena’s shoulder. The man smiles apologetically. “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but your mother instructed me to inform you that the photographer is taking PR shots on the balcony at ten o’clock sharp. She was very insistent.”

“That sounds like her.” Lena smiles politely, but she hasn’t let go of Kara’s arms. “Tell her we will be along presently.”

The beta nods and turns on one heel, melting into the crowd. Kara looks around after his passage, searching for Lex, but there’s no sign of him, either. She doesn’t know whether to be relieved or concerned. Probably a mixture of both. 

“We have about ten minutes, then.” Lena surmises quietly, as if speaking to herself. She’s pulled her phone out from her clutch and is scanning it intently. “Okay, doable.”

Kara opens her mouth to start asking questions, but Lena effectively and efficiently shuts her up by taking hold of her tie. She tugs, imperiously, and Kara follows her like a dog on a leash, leaning down slightly to accommodate the omega’s smaller height. She must look ridiculous, and part of her inner alpha wants to protest at this treatment. The omega’s heels clacking on the marble and the sway of her hips are doing a lot to keep Kara quiet and complacent, however. 

Strangely though, Lena does not lead her to the balcony for picture setting. Nor to the bathroom for prep work. Instead, Kara finds herself blinking into the harsh fluorescent and dull grey concrete of the stairwell. An exit sign hangs on the floor below, buzzing faintly as the neon burns slowly to its death. 

“Lena, what are we—“ 

Kara is swiftly and startlingly cut off by the omega hitching up the skirt of her dress, rolling the fabric above her knees. Her thighs are a flash of pale below the smooth beige of her nylons. Kara swallows her words and lets out a low, helpless whine as Lena drops to her knees on the dirty concrete. 

“I can’t have you tenting your trousers during the photoshoot.” Lena tells her, almost candidly, as she produces a bobby-pin from seemingly nowhere and slips it between her teeth as she sets her hair into a tighter bun. “We’re going to take care of it now.”

The pin slides into place and the necklace is next to go—glittering silver that it is—dropping heedlessly into the heel of one of Lena’s pumps. She sets the other one next to its mate, neatly, and then her hands are working on the button of Kara’s pants, deft and businesslike, and Kara has to grasp hold of the situation—and Lena’s fingers—before she cracks. 

“Wait, wait, wait.” She pants, scrambling for words. “Hold on. What do you mean  _ ‘take care of it’ _ ?”

Lena blinks at her as if it’s patently obvious. “I’m going to suck you off.”

“Here?” Kara is flailing, drowning. Thirteen years of human education on Earth has ill-prepared her for this scenario. Her voice is a crackling squeak. “In the  _ stairwell _ ?”

“Yes.” Lena tells her, succinct as always. She cups Kara’s cock with a warm palm and watches Kara shudder at the contact. “I don’t imagine it’ll take long. Less if you stop talking.”

_ Oh Rao. Oh heck.  _

Kara can feel the last thread of her sanity disappearing. There’s no chasing after it. It’s gone with the wind, like that movie that Alex hates. “But….that’s not…You don’t….”

“Kara.” Lena gives her a gentle squeeze, for emphasis. “I think it’s pretty clear your body is reacting to me. It’s nature. I don’t mind. Let’s just take care of things like adults and we can talk about it later, okay?”

“I—-“ Kara’s jaw is working open and closed but no sound wants to escape. Finally, shamefully, she relents. “Okay.”

“Good.” Lena says briskly, and when Kara’s hand drops away from hers, she unzips Kara’s fly. 

_ Rao. This is happening. This is happening. Oh wow.  _

Kara is curling her nails into her palms as Lena’s hand fishes her from her briefs, stroking along the shaft that pulses welcomingly at the touch of her hand. When she’s fully out, leaking head meeting the cold air of the stairway, Lena lets loose a low breath. “Oh. Well.”

“Is it okay?” Kara screws up her eyes. She can’t look. Everything is so over-stimulating with the sight of Lena on her knees, red lips parted. 

“It’s fine.” Lena tells her, but her voice has gone funny and tight. When Kara cracks one eye to look nervously at her, the omega gives her a reassuring smile. “No, it is, it’s just...I always figured you were big, it just takes some getting used to.”

That swells her alpha pride, and her cock bobs in agreement, pulsing out another pearly droplet of pre-cum. Lena wets her lips, watching it. Then her eyes roll up to Kara’s again and the alpha has to sharply curtail the urge to moan. 

Lena’s pupils are all round and dark, swallowing her eyes in lust. 

“We do this my way, okay?” Lena warns her, gently squeezing again at her base. “The last thing I need is for you to Supergirl-out, ruin my hair and makeup and leave me looking like I’ve been throat-fucked all night.” She politely ignores how Kara’s cock throbs at that. “So you’re going to let me lead the pace. Or I stop. Understood?”

“Y-yes.” The words  _ throat-fuck  _ are doing something primitive and unholy to Kara’s insides, but she bobs her head, dutifully. 

And then, impossibly, Lena lowers her head, and takes Kara’s aching tip into her mouth. 

_ Fuck.  _

Kara has to curl her hands into fists to stop from wanting to twist them into Lena’s dark hair at the sensation. She’s been on a razor’s edge of tension for days now, unable to feel release, and the immediate flash flood of Lena’s mouth is almost enough to make her burst at the seams, instantly. Silky-wet, warm, and flexing— _ moving  _ with the stroking, flickering muscle of her tongue. A teasingly wet embrace when her lips close around the head to suck. It’s only through massive effort that Kara can hold herself together. 

Lena’s licking all the pre-cum off the tip, and Kara wants to tell her it’s a Sisyphean task—licking will just prompt more—but she can’t muster words outside of a strangled groan. The omega looks up at her with her mouth stretched open around Kara’s cock and the alpha lets out another base noise as she spills more into Lena’s waiting mouth. 

Lena pulls off her cock to take a deep swallow, and then she gives the tip a long, showy lick, leading down to the base, where it swells and pulses between Kara’s engorged lips. It feels—- _ teasing _ . Playful. Like Lena enjoys Kara’s reactions. Like she enjoys all of it. 

It only makes Kara want to thrust more. 

Herculean restraint keeps her hips still as Lena begins the slow process of working Kara’s length into her pale throat. Her eyes stay locked on Kara’s the whole time, and it’s exquisite. She feels like she’s sinking into Lena, being swallowed whole in the most pleasurable possible way. The omega’s tongue is stroking as she bobs her head, working to draw out the throbbing veins along the shaft. Every touch of that liquid muscle feels like golden heat, bathing and consuming Kara to the marrow. She’s lost in it. 

“Fuck.” She breathes out, low and rumbling in her chest, and lets her hands slam back against the wall. The concrete crumbles under her fingers, and she twinges with momentary guilt. 

But then, Lena  _ moans _ with enthusiasm around her cock, and Kara’s alpha is roaring to destroy the entire stairway if it means the omega will keep sucking her like that. 

Lena is determined to take her all the way. Her palms are flat against Kara’s thighs, and she’s working her way down, down,  _ down _ , until her nose bumps into Kara’s tensed abdomen. The closest Kara’s ever come to feeling this enveloped was when she guiltily tried a faux-omega scented toy during her last rut—and that was a poor plastic imitation of the fluttering, pulsing grip that’s taking her in now. 

“ _ Lena.”  _ Kara chokes out, body tensing. Heat is spreading from her spine outward, and threatening to spill over her mind. “I’m gonna, it’s—-“

She expects Lena to heed her warning. To pull back, and aim Kara’s cock somewhere daintily away from her dress and heels. To perhaps wrinkle her nose in disgust at the mess, and the onerous task she just performed. 

But Lena does none of those things. 

Instead, Lena seals her lips to Kara’s base, eyes locked defiantly onto Kara’s tightened, reddened expression, and swallows every drop of Kara’s exuberant load, without pausing, breathing through her nose. 

She doesn’t stop sucking after the first shot, either. No, not Lena. She drains the alpha absolutely dry, until Kara’s cock slips limply from her lips and she tilts back on her bare heels, primly licking her lips to catch any stray drops. 

Kara lets out a weak groan, shuddering still against the concrete, and can barely keep both eyes open. She imagines this must be what humans who have run a marathon feel like. Ragged and empty of everything inside, but still supremely pleased. 

She doesn’t know  _ what _ just happened, but  _ Rao _ , she’s certainly not going to look this particular gift horse in the mouth. 

“Put your cock away.” Lena rises to her feet smoothly, slipping the silver necklace from her shoes and toeing them on as she latches it. “We have two minutes now.”

Kara blinks, and hastily does as she’s bid, stuffing her softened dick back into her briefs, and zipping back up, She’s brushing down her trousers for no reason as Lena leans against her shoulder to pick her clutch up from the ground. “Hold still, I need to fix my heels.”

Kara waits, obedient and blank-headed, as Lena leans against her to adjust one pump, then the next, sliding her now-dirty stocking feet into place. Then, she sighs and pulls a compact mirror from her clutch, slicking back a few stray wisps of hair that have come undone from her vigorous sucking earlier. She applies a new coat of red lipstick, slow and careful at the corners and then snaps the compact shut. 

Kara blinks awake at the noise, shaking her head a little, but Lena is already holding out her arm. “Come on. We can’t keep the press waiting.”

It’s impossible. What has happened is life-changing, friendship-ruining, earth-shattering. But Lena waits patiently, not saying a word, and Kara has no idea how to even speak after the explosiveness of her orgasm, and so instead she just puts Lena’s hand in the crook of her arm and they go back into the party. 

***


	5. Chapter 5

Kara doesn’t remember the photoshoot at all except in blurs. 

Lillian, fussing over Lena’s earrings, telling her she should have worn another pair. Lex, his smile a casual veneer of sociability while his eyes tell Kara an entirely different story. The photographer saying  _ now that’s a happy family  _ while they all scrunch awkwardly closer, smiling through bared teeth. 

Her head is full of confusion and lust and fear. It’s swirling, a maelstrom building and building as the evening dwindles to a close. She stays silent behind Lena, smiling wanly and nodding as the omega makes her pleasant goodbyes to what feels like a stadium’s worth of important guests, and then they’re slipping back into the town car, the door shutting between them and the crowd once more, and Kara feels everything impact at once. 

She’s been hit by a freight train before, so she remembers exactly what it feels like. It feels like this. 

The car ride is intensely silent. Kara tries to think of a way to start a conversation that desperately needs to begin, but her mind is empty aside from  _ do you want to talk about how you deep-throated my cock earlier,  _ which is unhelpful. She fidgets. Lena stares out the window, chin resting in her hand, clearly deep in her own thoughts as lights from the cars outside slide over her face, lighting her in red, white, yellow. There isn’t an opportunity, and Kara can’t think of a way to force one, so she stays silent, watching the neon pass across the omega’s quiet, thoughtful expression. 

After the driver deposits them back at the apartment building, Lena bids him a quiet goodnight and, judging by the quick flash of bills, tips him well. Kara waves goodbye and they’re left alone, the only sound the click of Lena’s heels on the tile as they go to the elevators. When the doors open with a whoosh and a cheerful  _ bing _ , Kara feels sluggish, delayed. She almost lets the doors close on her before she darts after Lena. 

Inside the elevator, it’s redolent with silence. Dripping in it. Kara can’t stand anymore of it. 

“Lena…” She begins, slowly, unsure of herself. 

“I think I’m going to go to bed early, if that’s okay with you.” Lena says, looking straight ahead at the display of buttons. 

Kara blinks. It’s nearly 12am. They’ve passed ‘early’ a long way back. “I—okay, but, can we—-“

“It’s been a long night, Kara.” Lena tells her, quiet and pointed, just as the elevator beeps to alert them that they’re approaching the top floor. “Let’s just get some rest.”

_ No. No. We need to talk about this now or I get the feeling you’ll never want to talk about it again.  _

Kara is instinctively shaking her head before the omega even finishes, but Lena doesn’t turn to acknowledge her at all. The elevator doors open, and she steps smoothly through them, heading resolutely down the hall that contains only one door—-theirs. 

Kara can only stumble after her, a slow frustration building under the molasses post-orgasm fog. “Lena,  _ wait— _ “

It’s as if the omega doesn’t hear her at all. As soon as the penthouse door closes behind them, she’s toeing off her heels, taking her earrings out, undoing the elaborate network of bobby-pins holding up her hair. “I think I’ll text the housekeeper now and let her know not to come tomorrow. I’d like to sleep in. And I should probably offer her a raise, anyway.”

“Lena.” Kara is still standing. She’s closest to the kitchen island, a weighty block of Italianate marble, and she puts her palms onto it to steady herself. 

Again, the omega refuses to meet her eyes, choosing instead to fiddle with her phone. The casual way she’s ignoring the precipice of conversation is sending a ripple of anger down Kara’s spine. “I’ve been working on the idea of having her come once a week, so we needn’t share a bed so often, and I think this morning may have been just the thing to convince whoever—-“

“ _ Lena _ .” Kara feels a crunch as the marble gives way under her fists. Her hands are still clenching, fingers drifting with fine powder. 

Lena blinks at her, wide-eyed. “Kara, your hands—“

“We need to talk.” Kara interrupts her, forcefully. Then she looks down. “Oh. Crap. Sorry. I...didn’t mean to do that.”

The omega only stares at her. Kara flinches internally, but soldiers on. “We need to talk, Lena.”

“I don’t think—“

“We have to.” Kara interjects again. “Or I think I’ll go crazy. Please.”

There’s an agonizing silence until finally—finally—Lena meets her eyes. 

“Okay.” She says quietly. “But can I make some tea first? I really am tired.”

Kara gives her the most encouraging of her smiles. “I can make tea if you want to change. That dress is very pretty but I don’t think it's comfortable.”

“Definitely not.” Lena confides, but her smile is soft and secretive at the instant that Kara says the word  _ pretty.  _ “What about you, though?”

Kara always privately delights in reminding Lena of her powers, now that she can. She  _ whooshes _ to the bedroom, changes into her sweats, and  _ whooshes _ back, all before the tendrils of Lena’s hair blown back by her passage have a chance to settle. “I’m good. What kind of tea do you want?” 

The omega blinks. “Well. That settles that. I’ll go change then.” She turns over her bare shoulder. “Chamomile, please. With a little honey.”

Kara gets the kettle boiling and arranges the tea and the honey about ten different times before Lena returns, wearing one of the flimsier excuses for nightgowns that Kara has seen in her repertoire. It’s not going to distract her, though. Definitely not. 

When the tea finishes brewing, she hands Lena a cup and a saucer and wordlessly, they go to the couch. The omega sits with her knees folded to one side, blowing on her tea, and Kara can’t help but stare. She remembers every moment of the stairwell. Everything burned into her memory, like a white-hot brand. 

She remembers how Lena sank to her knees. She remembers the pitching tension in her gut. The unfurling pleasure in the base of her spine when at last the omega let her lips part and—

Kara shakes her head, slowly. “Why did you do that?” At Lena’s blank expression. “In the stairwell, I mean. When you…”

The omega’s eyes flick quickly away. She says the words to her reflection on the TV. “I thought we talked about this already. It was just a quick...adjustment...so that we looked presentable for photos.”

Kara frowns. “It was more than that, Lena, and you know it. You didn’t have to—to—do  _ that _ , just to look good for pictures.”

“Are you not okay with it?” Now Lena’s eyes move back to hers, worried. “I thought you were consenting but if I misread—“

“No, I was.” Kara reaches for her, and gets her knee, palm molding over the joint. Lena looks down at her hand but Kara leaves it there, reassuring her. “I was. I...am. That’s not the problem here. Or, I guess, there isn’t a  _ problem _ here, but we still need to talk about it.”

Lena sets the tea down on the coffee table with a small  _ clink _ . “Okay.”

Kara doesn’t say anything, then. She just waits. Her thumb rolls softly over the vulnerable skin of Lena’s knee, where the socket meets the bone. 

Finally, the omega sighs. “I don’t know. I don’t know why I—-“ She looks sharply up at Kara. “Is it wrong if I just….wanted to?”

“No.” Kara tells her, softly. There’s an intimate, heavy pause. “But I worry there’s some lines being crossed for you, right now, with everything we’re doing.” Lena hasn’t taken her eyes off Kara’s, so she sees the flicker of acknowledgement in real time. “And I don’t want you to feel like you have to….” Kara flounders for the right word. “Play the part? All the time? With me, I mean.”

“What about you?” At Kara’s tilted head, Lena clarifies. “Are there lines being crossed for you, too?”

Kara thinks about the last morning. “Definitely.” She admits, solidly. “But…” This will take some guts, so she draws in a deeper breath. “I’m not sure that our friendship didn’t have some blurred lines to begin with, if I’m being honest.”

“I know what you mean.” 

Another weighted, poignant pause. Lena’s eyes are dark, and Kara can’t quite look away. Her hand on the omega’s knee itches to slide just inches further, and she doesn’t know whether to lift it away or move it up. It’s been resting there for just a bit longer than is fully appropriate. But she feels frozen in time, waiting. 

“Would you have ever…” Kara needs to take a breath again, because this is the million dollar question, right here. “Would you have thought about being with me...like that? Before the—-before all of this happened?”

At first, Kara thinks she’s gone too far. Lena’s face goes stony-silent for a moment, and her body stiffens. Kara moves to take her hand away, feeling unsure—but then the omega interrupts her motion, sliding their fingers together. 

“Yes.” Lena tells her, so soft that it’s almost a whisper. She squeezes Kara’s fingers, once, and then drops them. 

Kara’s heart is elephant-sized in her chest. It’s six feet tall. She can feel her whole body tighten around it. 

“Would you have let me kiss you, back then?” 

Now  _ that _ is a leading question, and it’s saying a lot more than Kara needs to let on, judging by the flash of shock on Lena’s face, but she needs to know the answer.  _ Needs _ it like she needs the sun and the air on her face when she flies. 

She opens her mouth and the truth tumbles out. “Because I always wanted to kiss you, Lena.”

“I—“ Lena closes her eyes, and for a moment Kara thinks she might be losing her, that the omega might be retreating again, but then she opens them and there’s a wetness in the corners. A blurring of fierce green-blue-grey. “I wanted to, too.”

“ _ Lena _ .” Kara is heat and swelling and  _ love _ burning in her chest like a log fire. She wants to kiss those gathering tears away. She wants to take Lena into her arms. She leans forward, just a bit, intention clear in her face, but the omega turns her head. 

“I can’t.” Lena chokes out, not looking at her. “Not….not now.”

Kara’s heart is crushed in a vice. “Okay.”

“I  _ want _ to.” Lena admits, so quietly that Kara barely even hears her above her heartbeat. “But….there’s so much….”

Kara knows what Lena’s saying, even if she’s not truly saying it yet. There’s been too much betrayal. Too many lies. Too many changes and things left unsaid. 

But there’s also a tendril. A tiny seedling. A little bit of hope. 

And she latches onto that flicker of hope and lets it guide her, like it always has. 

“It’s okay.” She says, and she slides her hand further up Lena’s arm. “Can I hold you? Is that okay?”

The tiniest nod is all she needs to gather Lena into her arms like she’s wanted to for months now, and curl around the omega, hugging her close even as Lena lets out a little choked noise like a sob. It feels excruciatingly  _ right _ . The weight of her is warm, and she’s soft in Kara’s arms. So  _ soft _ , for someone so  _ strong _ . 

“It’s gonna be okay.” She repeats, on autopilot. “I’m sorry things got this way. I’m sorry. It’s gonna be okay.” 

Lena lets out another quiet sob, almost a laugh, and buries her face deeper into Kara’s chest, wet against Kara’s worn cotton t-shirt. It takes a moment before she composes herself again, and Kara lets her ride it out, rubbing her back in slow circles. When Lena sighs, and draws back, she lets her move away, even though her fingers itch to hold her closer. 

Thankfully, the omega stays close, knees touching. 

“What are we going to do?” She says, finally, sighing. “This is such a mess, and it hasn’t even been a week.”

“I don’t know.” Kara tells her honestly. “I’m worried about a lot of things. I’m worried about my identity not being a secret. I’m worried about how to keep the people I love safe. I’m worried about your brother, and what he’s up to.”

Lena flinches, visibly, and Kara pursues it. 

“I saw him with you tonight, before we…” she clears her throat. “I saw you talk to him. What did he say?”

“Nothing helpful.” Lena’s shoulders slump forward. “Believe me.”

“Lena.” At the alpha’s meaningful tone, Lena looks up. “I need to know.”

Lena sighs, deeply. “I wish it was more. He came up while I was talking to Andrea. Asked me how I was enjoying married life. I asked him what the hell he was playing at, that he knew perfectly well we weren’t really married.” She rubs her temples. “I could tell he wasn’t going to listen, though, he was in the mood to play ‘cat and mouse’ all night to exhaust me. And of course, he ignored me and asked if I liked having you in my bed.”

Kara draws in a quick breath but Lena continues on, undeterred. 

“I said he was welcome to experience a Kryptonian for himself, provided he could distract Lois Lane long enough.” Kara chortles at that, and Lena smiles, thinly. “Yes, I don’t think he appreciated that. But I’d seen you across the floor and decided it was a good time to make my exit, and I did.”

She shakes her head, slowly. “I don’t know what he’s planning. I know it’s not good. Both my mother and Andrea warned me today.”

“Your mother?” Now Kara is startled. “I didn’t think she was generally—“

“—on my side?” Lena finishes for her, wryly. “Me either, but I do believe she’s trying her best, now. Whatever Lex is planning is dastardly enough to move her to dust off her much-neglected motherly instincts, it seems. And Andrea was downright insistent that I go with her and her  _ husband _ to the Riviera.” 

“Oh really?” The idea sends a spike of heated jealousy through Kara’s veins, and she couldn’t quite hide it in her tone. She swallows at Lena’s knowing look. “Is that something you’d want to—“

“No.” Lena tells her, firmly, and Kara all-but-instantly sighs in relief. “I have no interest in wading out whatever impending upheaval my brother has planned aboard Andrea’s ridiculous yacht. Even if it means I’m out of harm’s way.” 

_ Harm’s way.  _ Kara hadn’t considered that. She frowns. “Maybe you should, though. If it means you won’t be—“ she clears her throat at Lena’s sharp look. “Ah, okay, maybe not.”

“I don’t know what Lex is planning.” Lena tells her, calmly. “But that doesn’t mean I have given up trying to find out. And when I do, we’ll stop him. And figure out how to go back to something like our old, normal lives, afterward.”

_ We’ll stop him. We.  _ That’s a positive change, and Kara doesn’t fail to note it. The second part of Lena’s statement makes her twinge, a bit, but she refuses to acknowledge that. Living with Lena can’t last forever. She  _ knows _ that. 

Even if it’s starting to feel like it should. 

“You’re right,” she tells Lena. “I’ll help you however I can. How do you want to start?”

“Honestly?” Lena laughs, and Kara can tell instantly how tired she is. “I want to start tomorrow. Can we just….” She swallows and her eyes track onto Kara’s, asking. “Can we just go to bed?”

_ We.  _

Kara doesn’t fail to notice that, either. 

She follows Lena to the bedroom, and they go about their separate businesses at separate sinks, face washing and teeth brushing. Kara spits into her sink, and looks up, watching Lena rub moisturizer into her cheeks. The vulnerable way she frowns at herself in the mirror is strangely charming. She has to duck quickly back down to her floss pick when Lena happens to glance up and catches her staring. 

In bed, they lay on opposite ends of the massive gulf between them. The bed is like a silent, lonely island with two inhabitants, and neither speaks for long moments. Lights from the city below twinkle in the windows and Kara listens, idly, as a band of raccoons make good their escape from a KFC dumpster. 

It’s quiet and the sheets are white and cool, and Kara is beginning to doze off, when she hears Lena. 

“Kara?” A rustle, and then a small, indecipherable noise. “Would you….would you hold me, again?”

_ Oh.  _ Kara is suddenly more awake and alert than she’s been in days. “Of course. Yeah. Um. Hang on, I’ll scoot over.”

She can feel her palms start to sweat as she crosses the great expanse of bed to get to Lena’s absurdly tiny form, all the way on the other end. Her heart is also beating rather fast, and she wills it to slow down, but there’s no use. Lena is bound to hear it as she presses close, wrapping an arm around the omega’s still waist. 

“Is this okay?” Kara’s breath is disturbing the little hairs at the nape of Lena’s neck. She can see them rise. Her arm slides under the pillow below Lena’s head, and she’s cradling the omega as close as she dares. For once, thankfully, either as a result of her earlier explosive orgasm or the tension of the moment, her cock stays dormant. 

“Yes.” Lena answers, barely above a breath. As if to solidify it, she puts her hand on Kara’s arm on her waist. Her palm is also hot. Her heartbeat is thudding. 

Kara wills herself to be still, to be restful and kind, and she closes her eyes, nosing as respectfully as she can into the black strands of hair across her face. She slows her breathing, trying to calm the flutter she hears in the omega’s pulse, and it works. In and out, in and out, slow and easy. Lena is warm in her arms and Kara’s body wants her close like this. It’s soothing, relaxing. The sound of the omega’s softening heartbeat and slow, deepening breaths are comforting. 

Sleep is inevitable. 

****

Lena knows she’s dreaming as soon as she closes her eyes. 

She’s only ever this happy in her dreams. 

Kara is covered in flour, and dodging a second attack, as Lena raises her handful. “Absolutely unfair! You have access to the jar!”

“I chose the better positioning.” Lena retorts, smugly and showers Kara in a handful of chopped walnuts. “And you said this was more fun than actually making cookies.”

“It is!” Kara turns, lightning fast, and whips a spoon laden with semi-melted chocolate chips back at her. Lena is laughing so the barrage catches her half in the mouth, and that’s helpful, but the rest smears across her cheek. 

“Kara!” Lena is breathless, so the retort is losing a lot of its steam, but that’s fine. “Truce, truce, you heathen, I need to make sure there isn’t melted chocolate in my hair.”

“Like this is better?” Kara gestures at her flour-speckled body, but grins and steps closer. Her thumb goes to Lena’s cheek, then her mouth. “Didn’t think it was possible for you to—“

“If you say ‘to get more delicious’ or something absurdly trite like that, Kara, so help me God, I’m not responsible for what I’ll do.” She threatens, but it's mild. Kara’s lips are so close to her own. Her eyes are twinkling when she wets her thumb and cleans up Lena’s temple. 

“Your loss.” Kara shrugs, impudently, and examines her hairline. “No chocolate here, ma’am, just a lot of early grey hairs.”

“There are  _ not _ .” Lena jerks away, hand flying instinctively up. 

“Of course there aren’t.” Kara is grinning, and there’s a walnut lodged above her ear. “We haven’t even had kids yet.”

“Yet.” Lena echoes her quietly. Her heat is now thudding a bit faster, and of course, Kara can tell. “When were you thinking that would happen?”

“Well, we’ve been married for—“

“Two years.” Lena interjects, smiling. 

“—two years now, yeah.” Kara cups her face, and her thumb is stroking, butterfly soft over Lena’s jaw. There’s the mating mark, hiding right under the curve there, often obscured by her hair. It’s discrete, but clear if you know what to look for. Lena can feel it when Kara touches the raised skin, and it makes her tingle. The alpha’s voice is several octaves lower. “Maybe it’s time.”

“Had me to yourself long enough, I take it?” Lena’s breath is getting shorter, but she doesn’t protest when Kara curls an arm around her waist and lowers her to the messy kitchen floor, pinning her wrists gently above her head as the alpha leans down to kiss her neck. 

“Never.” Kara tells her, hot into her skin, and Lena shudders. 

It makes her ache, the way Kara bites and sucks at the sensitive skin there, so she hauls the alpha’s flour-streaked face up and does her best to kiss the life out of her. Kara has better lung capacity than her own, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t gasping when Lena wrenches away, and damn, if that isn’t always so satisfying. 

“Let’s make a baby.” Kara kisses into the crown of her breasts, pulls one nipple free from the loose neck of Lena’s t-shirt. She isn’t wearing a bra, and it makes it easy for the alpha to roll the faded cotton up and over her head, bunching it up beneath as a makeshift pillow. 

“Fuck.” Lena breathes, as Kara goes to work kissing down to her jeans. She threads her fingers through golden hair, dusted with white. “I want to.”

“Yeah?” Kara’s mouth is hot against the elastic of her panties. 

Lena squirms against the rising tension in her belly, but one of Kara’s big heavy hands rests on her hip bone, holding her down as she shucks the omega’s jeans off, one leg at a time. “You know I do. “

“I can smell you.” Kara tells her, quite unnecessarily, but when she lifts her head again her pupils have blown, and Lena swallows against the urge to arch her back submissively and whimper like a good omega. She doesn’t quite succeed. 

When Kara tongues her through the sodden fabric of her panties, she does whimper. Loud and clear. 

“Please.” She’s begging, even before her first orgasm has finished curling her toes. “Please, I want you inside me.”

(There is a cognizant, lucid part of her that is along for the ride, begging right along with the dream, but that doesn’t matter now.) 

Kara is eager. So eager, she doesn’t even bother pulling her jeans any further than past her ass, and the rough denim bumps and scratches Lena’s thighs as she positions herself between them. Her cock glides blunt and heavy against the omega’s opening and she moans, indulgently, as Kara presses into her, stretching her open with such agonizing bliss. 

The first thrusts are hesitant, slow. Feeling each other out, rolling gently to meet each other. Then, the pace begins to steadily quicken, like a heartbeat and soon it’s racing faster and faster. The wet noises of their bodies meeting is loud in the echoing quiet of the kitchen, but louder still are the ungainly noises that are ripped from Lena’s lungs with each powerful thrust. 

“ _ Rao.”  _ Kara breathes out, nudging into Lena’s pulse for comfort, her hips churning. “You make me crazy.”

Lena takes a hold of the sweaty neck and tilts her lips to Kara’s ear, panting in her frenzy. She hitches her legs around Kara’s waist and locks her ankles together, holding her in place. “You gonna fill me up, alpha?”

“Fuck—“ Kara rarely swears, and it’s always hot when she does. Even more so when she growls. “ _ Yes _ .”

“Do it.” Lena squeezes her thighs in encouragement, nipping at Kara’s ear. “Breed me. Make me yours. Give me a baby.”

Kara cries out, startled and helpless, and her eyes fly to Lena’s. Then she grits her teeth, sets her jaws against Lena’s neck, and puts her hands on the omega’s hips, pulling her to meet the onslaught of thrusts. And she ruts into Lena in a furious, instinctive frenzy. 

Lena can’t complain. Or even consider it. Her orgasm is crawling up her skin, shattering her ability to think, to move, to do anything but feel. She cries out, arching her spine against Kara’s rapacious plunging, and tilts her head back, letting the waves take her under as Kara howls her pleasure into Lena’s jugular. 

The sudden flood of warmth inside her is as comforting as it is satiating, and Lena comes, overstuffed and overstimulated, a third and final time. Her fluttering, empty brain is just cognizant enough to feel Kara’s excited grunting and helpless, twitching jerks as her cock empties. The slick bursts inside of her body are like little spasms of pleasure, each time. 

_ I’m going to get pregnant.  _ She thinks, drowsy and content, as the alpha lovingly lays kisses all over her collarbone.  _ Soon. Soon we’ll be a family.  _

And the shock and sudden heat of  _ need  _ in Lena’s stomach is what wakes her, to an early grey dawn, with a flood of wetness between her thighs and a sleeping alpha nosing at her neck, hips moving sluggishly against her backside. Kara is making soft instinctive whining sounds in her throat as Lena moves to wakefulness, and as soon as her eyes blink open and she takes a breath of the pheromones hanging heavy in the room, Lena knows why. 

Her heat has come early. 

***


	6. Chapter 6

Kara is dreaming of sighs and satisfaction, moans and murmurs, wet flesh meeting and retreating. 

She’s in a haze, a fog. Her instincts thrum, vibrating low in her spine, telling her to mate, to breed. Claim, thrust, fill. There is pliant flesh against her body, wiggling coquettishly, and she can smell the heat of the omega—so intriguing and yet familiar to her nose. Her body hungers in a way she hasn’t felt before. She knows, in her dream, that there is some price to be paid, but she’s willing to pay it, threefold times over. The alpha instinct inside her is slavering, howling for freedom. She wants to let it out.

Then, an imperceptible noise wakes her, and her eyes fly open. 

_Lena_. It’s Lena, all around her, in front of her. Moaning and grinding slowly against back Kara’s burgeoning erection, as if lost in some kind of daze. All Kara can see is her hair moving back and forth—a dark ship on the tossing sea of her shoulders. The pale skin is dewy with sweat. 

Kara’s urges are still there, screaming under her skin, but she has superhuman reserves, after all, so she takes a deep breath, steadying herself, before she goes to shake Lena gently awake. The scent on the air is heady and sweet, like jasmine and orange blossom, and Lena’s heat calls to her through it, tendrils of whispering want. She swallows, feeling the blood pounding in her lower regions. “Lena. Wake up.”

“I’m awake.” The response comes almost at once, but groggily, as if Lena is hardly aware. “Kara, it’s my heat.”

“I know.” Kara tells her, thickly, hands hovering guiltily on either side of the bed. She digs her nails into her palms. 

“It’s driving me crazy.” Lena admits in a voice low with want. She shivers. “Kara, it hurts.”

“I’m sorry.” Kara’s throat is tight. Lena’s still moving against her cock, stiff and eager against the omega’s rolling backside. She shows no signs of stopping, either. “I can—-go and get you some suppressants, if, if that’s—“

“Kara.” Lena’s voice rises on a warbling whine. “That’s not going to help and you know it.”

“It might.” Kara argues, weakly, but she’s only buying time here before the inevitable and she knows it. Suppressants have a 12-hour effectiveness window. If Lena had taken one last night, she would be fine. But she didn’t and they both know it. 

“It _won’t_.” Lena sounds as petulant as a child. The pull of heat is deep and heavy, Kara knows, but it still stings to try to deny her. Especially with her gullet roiling for claiming and knotting. “Kara, you know it won’t.”

“Okay.” Kara’s body is sticky with sweat and tension. She can feel herself giving in, even as she makes one last pretense at not, and closes her eyes, tightly before opening them again. “What do you—-what can I do to help?”

Lena turns in her arms, breathless and shockingly fast, and says ‘ _This_ ’ before smashing their lips together. 

It is and isn’t what she expected. 

Originally, in the days of just-a-crush on Lena, she’d pictured their first kiss like a romantic dream—soft confessions, rounding eyes, leaning ever-so-slightly closer on the couch and then—

Later, when Lena was going bad, she’d pictured it like a balm. A saving grace kiss. Crushing Lena’s hot, angry face between her destroyer’s hands and kissing the breath out of her until she admitted she was hurt and acting out of anger. Admitted that Kara’s betrayal had shocked her into villainy and that she had no idea what she was doing. And then Kara would wrap her into strong savior’s arms, kiss her softly and weep with her until the crying was done. 

This is not either of those two things. 

Lena’s mouth is impatient, her lips spoiled and pouty. Their kiss is wet, biting, furious. When Kara slides in with her tongue, Lena sucks on it in a way so reminiscent of the way she’d sucked Kara’s cock that Kara growls and shudders into her eager mouth. 

Her body clings to Kara tightly, but not as a lifeline, more like a constrictor wrapping around its prey. She twines against Kara’s chest, hips always moving, and Kara puts her hands on Lena’s hips, rubbing up and down, trying to soothe her into some kind of stillness, but it’s futile. Lena snakes against her body, moaning against her mouth, and Kara is merely along for the ride for long, blissful seconds. 

Her cock pounds away in her sleep shorts, giving unhelpful throbs and eager pulses from the tip every time Lena presses close. Lena can clearly feel it, too, and she’s responding with equal enthusiasm. Her fingers wind in the stretchy waistband of Kara’s shorts, and the alpha groans. “Lena, slow down.”

“Can’t.” The omega pants into her lips. “Feels like I’m burning—- _fuck_ Kara, you feel big—burning up.” 

Lena is straddling her hips now, and in between kisses, Kara lets her palms pace up and down Lena’s back, the nightgown sticking to her sweaty, heated skin. She does feel like she’s burning up. Kara has limited experience with omegas during heat, but she knows they can feel warm to the touch. No one said anything about how warm, though. This is almost searing—it definitely can’t be comfortable. 

“Tell me how I can help.” She murmurs, rubbing her thumb against the bare, scorching skin of the omega’s hip, hitched over her own. “I’ll help you anyway I can, Lena, but I need to hear you ask for it.”

It’s not just ego—she needs to hear Lena consent or at least attempt it. This isn’t how she pictured their first time having sex, but one thing is going to remain constant: she’s not going to do anything unless Lena tells her she wants it. It’s a firm root in her big, redwood soul—one that won’t be denied. 

The clarity of what she’s being asked seems to dawn on Lena, and for a blinking instant, her eyes look serious and clear. “I—yes, yes I want this.” Her hands come up to cup Kara’s shoulders and she rolls down again, pupils darkening once more. “I want _you_.” 

That’s as good as a starter pistol for Kara’s revving internal engines. She rears up and kisses Lena again, deep and full, glorying in the plush give of Lena’s lips, her aristocratic neck, her long, draughty sighs. Their tongues touch, briefly, and the instant of connection is white-hot. 

For what feels like a long time, they just kiss. And kiss. It’s sloppy, wet making-out not unlike what she witnessed Alex doing in high school. It feels so purely good to give into it, though. To kiss Lena like she’s wanted for so long. Feels like something she wants to take her time doing. Do it right, sweet, slow. 

But the way Lena keeps whimpering and groaning with impatience, bucking into her lap, maybe ‘slow’ isn’t the best course of action. 

Especially when the omega grabs Kara’s slowly-wandering hand and shoves it between her hurriedly parted thighs. 

The heat there is exquisite. It’s molten on her fingertips, dragging against the edge of Lena’s ruined panties. She can’t see, with her lips occupied by Lena’s demanding mouth, but her fingers can feel, and it’s twice as good. Tongue wet, fingers wet. Wet everywhere. Drowning in it. Lena’s so wet that Kara can read her through her panties like Braille. Lena’s so wet that Kara’s fingers are just spreading it around, over and through, slip-sliding that silk against her labia that are as puffy and pouting as her upper lips. 

Kara is entranced, and then she’s gripped with the need to act. She doesn’t know what she’s doing, but it feels good to slip her finger under the soaked edge of those panties, to touch Lena’s bare, sensitive skin. When Lena breaks away to gasp, she stops, concerned—but then the omega whines and shifts against her so she curls her finger down and it slips inside. 

And oh—-oh _Rao_. It feels. It feels so terrifying and wonderful to be inside of Lena like this. It’s so warm and pulsing around her and so delicate. So human. Kara is an intruder in the holy temple of her body, where her heartbeat is so close against her thin skin. She feels reverent. Her finger flexes, just a bit, and Lena moans, encouraging her with her tilted hips, to slide in deeper. It feels like blasphemy, but a blessing, at the same time. It’s unlike anything Kara imagined or could have predicted. 

And she wants more. 

Two fingers now, easing in slow and gentle with her lips coaxing from above, swallowing Lena’s helpless, impatient noises. Kara’s less reverent now, more confident, and she moves slowly, but sure. Lena clutches at her shoulders, her back. She’s panting and her chest rises under the nightgown, and Kara wants to see it, wants to see her bare and revealed, but there’s no time for that. Inexperienced and sloppy as she is, she can sense it doesn’t matter—there’s a crescendo building in the way they move together. Hot, tangled, wet. 

It’s almost shocking, when Lena comes. The violence of her sudden, jarring hips seizing and shuddering. The way she grips into Kara and cries out loud enough to wake the neighbors—if they had any. The rough imperfection of it drives her wild. She’s never seen Lena like this. Loose and wild and unhinged. It’s secretive and sweet. 

Afterwards, Lena pants and her lips slacken, until Kara’s hand slips from her panties. Then she twists a little and catches it. Kisses each of Kara’s slick fingers one by one. Looking Kara in the eye the whole time. And then she lets Kara’s heavy palm drop back to the mattress and looks at her as if to say ‘what’s next?’. 

_I just made Lena come. She wants more_. The heat and confidence of that knowledge spreads through Kara’s shoulders like honey dripping over her skin, and her hands go back to Lena’s hips, holding her steady as she resumes their kiss with all the same frenzy as before. 

She lets her hands scope up from Lena’s eagerly rocking hips, lifting the damp material of her nightgown and rolling it up as she lays kisses along the omega’s throat and upper chest. Lena can feel the cooler air of the apartment on her heated skin, clearly, and she hisses in pleasure, digging her nails into Kara’s scalp.

“Take it off,” she rasps, making uncoordinated circles in Kara’s lap.” Please.”

“I’m gonna.” Kara assures her, nipping onto that pouting lower lip that cries out for fervid attention. “Just taking my time.”

But, when she slides her palm full against the small of Lena’s back to slip under the silk, she frowns. 

There’s something there, on Lena’s lower back. A bump. A rough patch that wasn’t there before. Her blood runs cold as her fingers span over it, feeling. 

“Kara—-“ Lena presses down on her throbbing cock, whining with impatience. “Come on.”

“Hold on.” 

Kara regains control, and she musters it, holding Lena against her body as she peels the nightgown up and over her head. 

She can hardly take in the severe beauty of Lena’s bare skin but she catalogues the brief flash in her mind's eye for safekeeping—arrogantly-pointed breasts with rosy peaks, the gentle, vulnerable pouch of her belly, the starkness of her hipbones, the dense patch of dark hair between her thighs….oh _yes_ she will be keeping these memories. It takes a deep breath to marshal her thoughts once more. 

“Bend over? I need to see something.”

Lena lets out an enthusiastic purr that is equal to the sudden surge in Kara’s desire when the omega slides off her lap and presents herself, on hands and knees, on the rumpled bedclothes before the alpha. “Oh my god, _yes_. Whatever you want.”

Kara swallows, heavy and long, and blinks for a rebellious second before she can control herself again. Then, she furrows her brow, and re-masters herself to the task. She’s up and behind Lena, hand pacing over her back to keep her still, and then she sees it. 

It’s like a flesh-colored bandaid, right on the base of Lena’s spine. A patch, roughly the size of Kara’s thumb. It looks innocuously enough like a bandage that Kara’s alpha brain is slow to uptake. A birth control patch, maybe? Kara’s never seen one like this, but again, she’s no lothario, sadly enough, and this marks about as far as she’s ever gotten to discussing birth control with an omega. 

She’s just about to ask Lena what it is, when she sees it. 

A lattice-work of red-black veins, spiraling out from under Lena’s skin where the bandage touches her. They glow with an angry warmth, and, as Kara watches, horrified, another seeking tendril unfurls like a fern frond and expands further across Lena’s pale, all-too-human skin. 

“Oh _Rao_.” She whispers. 

“Kara.” The omega bucks back against her, impatiently, and inadvertently breaks the spell she’s under. “Are you going to fuck me or not?”

“No.” Kara’s heart is aching at the refusal, and from the way Lena’s pheromones cry out in distress. She swallows heavily. “Lena, I—I can’t. You have to get up. There’s something—“

“Don’t you dare try to be noble with me, not now.” Lena hisses, turning around as fast as lightning, the nightgown dropping back over her hips. “You got me all worked up again, and after I—-“

“Lena.” Kara takes her by the hips again, hoping her voice is calmer than it sounds. “Please, you have to listen to me: there’s something on your back.”

“I—what?” Lena blinks at her, pupils still drowsy with heat. She’s not getting through. “If this is a premature thing, it’s okay, I under—“

“No.” Kara interrupts hurriedly, with a bit more vehemence than intended. “It’s not...that. It's like a stick-on patch, on your back—-a transdermal implant. And it’s spreading.”

“What?” Now Lena’s looking more awake, albeit reluctantly. “Hang on.”

The omega slides off the bed, her bare legs flashing gracefully, and goes to the full-length mirror mounted on the door to the walk-in. She turns and looks over her shoulder. Sucks in a breath. “Oh my god. What the _hell_ is that?”

“I don’t know, but I’d bet whatever it is it wasn’t on your back before family photo time last night. ” Kara swings her legs over the side of the mattress, and fixes Lena with as serious a look as she can manage with her cock sticking straight up between her thighs like a flagpole. “Did Lex touch you? Last night?”

“He put his hand right there.” Lena is still staring in the mirror at the forbidding glow of the red-black veins under her skin, but her fingers trace over the surface of the patch. “I remember because it’s unusual for Luthors to physically acknowledge one another. I didn’t feel anything, but he must have known I’d be distracted. What with Andrea and….”

 _And you_. She doesn’t have to say it. Kara knows. The tension in the air between them had been so intense last night that she was surprised Lex didn’t orchestrate a full-scale bombing—there’s no way either of them would have noticed a thing until it was too late. And that thought gives her a sinking feeling in her stomach. 

“We need to go to the DEO.” She decides, standing up. “Let’s get dressed and—“

“No.” Lena interrupts her with force. “No DEO. It’s a Luthor collaborative effort now, remember? We don’t know who we can trust.” 

“We can trust Alex.” Kara protests. “And Nia, and Brainy, and J’onn.” 

“Those are your friends, not mine.” Lena spits back at her, eyes narrowing. Kara winces, thinking _they used to be your friends too_ , but says nothing. 

“And what makes you think your foster sister is a better scientist than I am? She may be better with a firearm, but I’m the one with three bloody PhDs.” Lena shakes her head and lets the nightgown drop back down, stepping away from the mirror. “No, we go to my lab. I’m sure I can figure this out alone.”

“There’s no time for that.” Kara grabs at her elbow, pleading without thought, and even as Lena looks curiously down at her hand, she doesn’t remove it. “Lena, that thing is spreading into your system as we speak. It’s not the time to hold old grudges, justified or not. _Please_.” She takes Lena’s other hand in her palm. “Just trust me. Trust us.”

For a heart-thumping moment, she thinks Lena isn’t going to say yes. That her green eyes will simply narrow with anger, and she’ll yank away. It almost comes to that. Almost. 

And then Lena sighs, and sags a little, and Kara knows then that she’s afraid. “Okay. Fine.”

“Thank you.” And before she can think of what she’s doing, Kara pulls Lena a little closer, and kisses her gently. Just a lip-to-lip touch, soft and sweet. It feels almost entirely too natural to do it. But when she hears Lena’s little intake of breath, she remembers that perhaps that’s too much, and withdraws.

“Ah. I’m gonna, gonna get dressed.” Kara hears herself mumble out, and then she’s off to the bathroom with a painful erection chafing against her sleep shorts and a persistent, itching feeling that something is happening beyond her control. 

She doesn’t like it. 

***


	7. Chapter 7

“This is bad. Bad, bad, bad.” 

From the way Kara’s been chanting to herself and pacing back and forth across the exam room floor, Lena can tell she won’t be convinced into stopping anytime soon. Lena is pretty sure that isn’t going to help, but watching Kara work herself into an anxious lather is distracting her somewhat from the relentless cramping, aching feeling in her lower belly. Her heat is spiking while they wait, making her damp and a bit dazed, sweating and blinking slowly while Kara does the emotional heavy-lifting of processing what they’d found. 

“So bad. So bad. So bad.”

She wants to touch the device on her back, but she’s been told not to. Still, her fingers itch to just peel the damn thing off. Rip it away like a bandaid. Surely it could be that easy. That’s what’s so deceptive about Lex’s whole modus operandi—he likes to have you think it could be what it appears on the surface, like a crocodile. Her heat brain is just drowsy enough to want to fall for it. Dangerous, that. 

“I can’t believe I didn’t check you after the gala. I should have been monitoring us both for devices, even just wiretaps. Rao, I’m so  _ stupid _ .”

Lena wants to ask how Kara intended to have checked her without stripping her clothes off, but that’s too tempting. She wets her lips. “Kara, calm down. Neither of us could have known. I should have suspected something with the way he was being so smug, but that’s Lex, so…” 

She shrugs, thinly. Her shoulders are still bare under the jacket Kara put around them to carry her to the DEO, and she should be chilly in the brisk, Federally-mandated 68F, but she’s not, of course. Her heat keeps her skin flushed and humming with low-grade, feverish energy. She can feel Kara’s eyes slid over her body every now and again, before looking quickly, guiltily away, and it’s not helping the charge of tension between them. 

She can’t stop remembering how  _ good _ Kara’s fingers felt inside her. How hard the alpha had fucked her with those fingers, while she panted and moaned brokenly into Lena’s lips. How Kara shuddered with her, when she came, twitching as if sharing the pleasure with Lena’s twisting, urgent body. 

Lena blinks hard, and comes back to herself just in time to hear the middle of another self-flagellating tirade. 

“—and I  _ knew _ he would try something that night when I saw him with you, and I was  _ right _ and now—“

“ _ Kara _ .” Lena interrupts, more forcefully than she means. When the alpha blinks at her, mouth closing, she puts on what she hopes is a pleasant smile. “Would you rub my shoulders while we wait? Please?”

Kara obliges, of course, because she’s Kara. Getting her to focus on a task, particularly a  _ helpful _ task, is always a good way to distract her from anxiety spirals—Lena knows this. And she  _ needs _ Kara to be touching her right now. Call it heat, call it….anything. She just knows the alpha’s touch  _ helps _ and it’s the only thing keeping her calm and relatively sane right now. Rubbing her shoulders is a bit more….friendly than what Lena truly needs, sure, but at least it’s better than watching the alpha pace the floor. 

The plastic exam mat on the table crinkles when Kara drops behind her, heavy and sighing. She puts her hands to good work right away though, thumbs rubbing right against Lena’s shoulder blades the way she likes. The way she always used to crave—back when they were ‘just friends’. Lena doesn’t know what they are, just now, but she leans into Kara’s touch anyway, closing her eyes. It feels too good to resist. 

“Thank you.” Her voice is throatier than she remembers it being a second ago, and she has to take a second to clear the purr out. “That feels nice, you always knew how to do this.”

“You carry your stress right here.” Kara’s thumb presses in, deeper, and Lena shudders at the pressure. “I’m surprised your fancy Swedish masseur never found it.”

_ That’s because I never let anyone touch me unless it’s you.  _ Lena thinks but doesn’t say it. “You’re the only one who knows all my secrets.”

There is a poignant pause, after that. Lena can feel how much she’s let slip. But it doesn’t matter. No going back now. Not after last night—-and this morning. 

She can feel how Kara is frowning, even before she speaks. “I wish I could do more for you, Lena. I can’t help but feeling like I’m helpless to protect you.”

“You don’t need to protect me.” The response is automatic, and as silly as it is ingrained. Of course she needs Kara to protect her, because even if Lena was the greatest scientist in the world—and she suspects sometimes that she is—Kara is  _ Supergirl.  _ But all Luthors have their vices, and pride is one of Lena’s favorites, even if it’s futile. Sometimes  _ especially _ if it’s futile. 

Kara must be thinking the same thing, but bless her, she doesn’t say it. She rubs nobly at Lena’s shoulders, silent and broody, but she doesn’t point out the flaw in Lena’s reasoning and she doesn’t protest. Instead, perhaps as the only measure she can take, she’s releasing soothing, pleasing alpha pheromones. The kind that speaks of strength and assurance and capability. Lena can feel her head lolling, hair brushing Kara’s wrists, and she moans, softly. 

It’s just a response to the shoulder massage, but still. Kara stiffens behind her and suddenly the pheromones are thicker in the air, and they smell of lust, possession, consumptive desire. Lena can hardly stand it—and she’s sitting down. Kara’s hands fall away from her back, and the alpha clears her throat. “Lena, I—“

Alex bangs the door open with spectacularly bad timing, as usual, and, without looking up from her tablet, announces cheerlessly: “Well, this is all  _ fucked _ .”

_ Hello to you, too.  _ Lena thinks, blinking, but her brain hasn’t passed the  _ want-need-have  _ stage after Kara’s scent invaded her like that, and she isn’t likely to come up for air soon. Her thighs are shaking, a bit, and her belly cramps and roils, threatening to bring up the thin breakfast Kara had forced on her before taking her here. Everything inside her screams for Alex to  _ leave  _ so that her alpha can take her right here on the green plastic mat. 

More distressingly, parts of her would also be fine if the other alpha  _ stayed _ —but Lena’s going to blame  _ that _ particular fantasy on her heat, thank you very much. 

“What is?” Kara’s up and moving toward her sister in an eye blink, all concern, her scent washing away into nothingness, but for the bit that lingers near Lena. “What’d you find?”

“Nothing good.” Alex sighs and cuts Lena an apologetic glance. “Hi, Lena.”

Lena doesn’t know if she has a hello in her yet for Alex. It feels smarter and more concise to nod, and lift the corners of her mouth, slightly. There’s a lot she needs to say, and apologize for, before she’ll feel right talking to the other Danvers alpha again, but there’s also hurt, prickling at her tongue. She’s worried she may yell something like  _ you should have told me every time I helped you— _ and that doesn’t seem very helpful, currently. 

Alex, thankfully, seems to convey a similar pattern of emotions with a single glance, perhaps one containing a mirror phrase of  _ you used Kryptonite on my sister _ . They don’t talk about it, but there’s the sense that they will, sometime in the future. And that’s enough for Lena, for now. 

“Alex! Explain.” Kara is intent, and starting to smell of furious alpha at being denied. She narrows her eyes at the tablet, and reaches for it, but Alex yanks it away. Lena winces—her heat is definitely ramping up all of Kara’s emotions, at the moment. 

“Well, do you want me to do it delicately, or do you want me to do it quickly?” Alex snaps, and taps on the tablet. A projection of a graph appears on the blank wall before them. “Okay, fine. Here, this is what we know.”

Lena’s quick to read the x and y axis labels and her breath tightens, but Kara, as usual, is too heightened to pay much attention. “What does that mean?”

“It’s a projection for the next twenty-four hours.” Alex looks grimly over the edge of the tablet. “The thing Lex put on Lena’s back—well, it seems like some kind of heat inducer. But one with a very fast, very tricky delivery system.” She taps again, and the graph changes to a picture of Lena’s lower back. The spider network of red veins looks angry, and dark. “That’s right at the base of her spine. And the bandage is basically a shield for thousands of barbed micro darts, that entered her skin on impact. You’d never feel them, until we tried to pull it off, of course.” Alex swallows and looks down, quickly. “Then, um, you’d feel it a lot.”

“Damn it.” Kara slaps the exam table so close to Lena’s thigh that she jumps, a little. “Sorry.”

“Listen, it gets worse.” Alex says, steadily. Her pheromones are unhappy cloud. “This thing is designed to deliver a high dose of chemical package right into the body’s central highway. And it appears to be causing Lena’s heat.”

Lena feels her blood run cold. “Why?” She croaks out, and both alphas swing to look at her. “Why would Lex want me in heat? He knows I’m ma—I’m  _ supposed _ to be married to Kara, in this universe.” 

“That, um. Seems to be part of it.” Alex gives Lena an agonized look. “Your heat is unnatural. Too strong for your body.” She swipes and the graph appears. “Looks like we have induction point at just before 10:00PM, Thursday evening. That’s when you say Lex had opportunity to touch your lower back?”

Lena nods, dumbly. Beside her, she can hear Kara neatly shredding a gauze pad. 

“Okay. That’s here.” A tiny arrow appears at the bottom of the graph. “And now we’re here.” The arrow moves closer to the top. Very close. “That’s...not great. Your temperature is spiking higher than average for omegas. If we can’t find a way to bring it down….any number of things. A stroke, seizure, coma, etc.. You could suffer permanent brain damage.” She swallows, and shoots Kara a significant look. “Or...die.”

“We’re not going to let that happen.” Kara says, firmly. Her hand lands on Lena’s back—so assuring, so confident, that Lena almost forgets they aren’t really married. Especially when Kara looks directly into her eyes with that almost  _ loving _ look—“I’ll just freeze-breath you if I have to.”

“Yeah. Um. About that.” Alex rubs the bridge of her nose. “You can’t be near her.”

“ _ What? _ ” The word leaves both Lena and Kara’s lips as one, but for once Kara doesn’t do the usual ‘jinx you owe me a potsticker’ routine.

Alex winces. “The heat inducer isn’t the only thing in the chemical cocktail. See these red spots?” Alex taps on the tablet and it zooms in on Lena’s back, once more. “That’s the chemical building blocks for Red Kryptonite. It’s growing in your system, Lena, like a plant taking root, and in about….four hours from now, it will bloom. And you’ll be a ticking time bomb.” Alex looks between them, quietly. “I don’t know how effective it is, but it looks like it can transfer from skin-skin contact. Maybe even just by you breathing near her.” 

“Wow.” Kara whistles, lowly. “That’s. Uh. Not good. Red K Me is scary.”

“I’m sorry, but we can’t take that chance. We have to move Lena to a secure facility.”

“I understand.” Lena is nodding right along with Alex, but Kara has a different reaction. 

“What?  _ No! _ ” Kara looks between the two of them like everyone has gone mad. “If Lena is going through this, she can’t be alone. What if she dies? You expect me to stay away then?”

There’s a sharp silence in the room. Lena can feel her breath in her throat, and she can feel what Kara is saying by not saying the words. It’s too much. She can’t handle this right now. 

Thankfully, Alex casts her a quick look, and she seems to understand. “Kara, you know this is for everyone’s safety. If you got near her and were infected, you could—“

_ Kill her.  _ There it is, there’s the opposite end of the spectrum from Kara desperately proclaiming her need to be at Lena’s side. There’s the possibility that somewhere, deep down, Kara wants to punish Lena for her sins. Maybe even permanently. It’s like a shock of cold water. Lena shudders and Kara shoots her a pained look. 

“I wouldn’t—“ Kara snaps her mouth closed. “Couldn’t I just be nearby?”

So, that’s how the compromise is worked out. Not entirely willingly on either side. Kara is insistent, but so is Alex. Lena mostly just stays silent. Alex has left the tablet projection on the image of the device on her back, and she is staring at those red lines below her skin. The deep, angry pattern. 

In the end, she’s taken to a DEO blacksite, and Kara flies above the van while Alex and Lena stare at each other from across the rocking seats, faces grim and silent. It’s awkward. Very awkward, and not about to get any less so, judging by the way Alex fidgets. 

“So.” Alex says finally. She looks like she’d rather be anywhere but here. “We brought you some. Uh. Toys?”

Lena blinks. “Toys?”

“‘Marital aids’.” Alex grinds out, making quote fingers. Lena sucks in a breath, and Alex rolls her eyes. “I know, it’s horrible and humiliating but…” She shrugs. “If an orgasm helps you, it’ll cut some of my work down.”

“I don’t think—“ Lena starts to tell Alex that she has a hard time satisfying herself in heat, even with her own personal ‘marital aids’, which were likely more expensive than anything the government could afford—but then she stops herself. “Well, I suppose it’s better than nothing.”

“It might work.” Alex points out to her, with clinical bluntness. “I don’t mean to be….but Lex clearly designed this thing to trap my sister into fucking you.” Lena flushes, and Alex waves her hands. “Sorry. But if it was designed that way…”

“It’s possible.” Lena sees what Alex is driving at. “The trap springing shut at the moment of….climax...would be something he’d find particularly Faustian, I suppose.”

“Well, if you can go ahead and try, the brass would appreciate it.” Alex clears her throat. “Also I think Kara would like it if you didn’t die.”

“I would also like that.” Lena laughs, a bit and it breaks the tension. 

Alex gives her a smile, a real smile, and it feels good. Lena forgot how good it could feel to be with a friend. Of course, it comes on the heels of impending death, but still. God, but she’s  _ lonely _ . 

Perhaps because of that moment in the van, or maybe in spite of it, Alex lets Kara have a few minutes with Lena alone before they put her in the lead-lined room. In the corner of her eye, Lena can see the DEO agents moving with computers, lab equipment, tables, into the adjacent room. She shivers. 

“Hey.” Kara takes her chin, gently, and Lena starts at the feel of her hands, so naked against her jaw. “Look at me, okay? I’m gonna find a way to fix this.”

“I know.” Lena says. What she means is  _ I know you’ll try _ or perhaps,  _ I know you’ll do your best _ , but she doesn’t say it. She tries to smile. Kara’s fingers are tingling where they touch and she’s worried even now that the Red K is making its way into Kara’s skin. She wants to jerk away, but Kara would take poorly to that, likely, so she swallows. “I’ll be fine. Thank you for being….well, thank you for taking care of me until now.”

She can tell Kara wants to say more, and so does she. It’s on the tip of her tongue. She knows it was on the tip of Kara’s, earlier. Why can’t she say it? Fuck, she  _ wants _ to, when Kara looks at her like that. Just reach up, kiss her on her plush, pretty lips and say  _ I’m in love with you  _ to her startled breath. 

But Lena can no more do that than she can admit that her hurts are too huge to bear alone. So she swallows it down, again. She doesn’t know how long she can keep doing that. Maybe it’s better if this thing kills her. Maybe it’s the only way she’ll ever find any peace. God, that’s maudlin, but possibly true. 

So, instead, she takes Kara’s hand around her jaw, and gently squeezes it, before she leads it away. “You’d better go, now.”

“We have time.” Kara insists, sounding a little desperate. She steps back into Lena’s personal space. Her hand reaches out for Lena’s and she finds it. “Please, Lena.”

“Kara, I can’t—-“

“Just listen to me.” Kara is slipping something into her pocket. It’s a cell phone. She looks at it—it’s shaped vaguely like a brick. “If you need me, you call me. Okay? Call me and I’ll come. Even if it’s just to be on the other side of the door. You’re not alone.”

“Kara, I have a phone.” She tries to laugh, a little, but the way the alpha keeps looking at her, holding her hand. It’s too much. The heavy, tight feeling in her chest is competing with the swooping, lurching urges of her heat. 

“Not one with a signal that can penetrate lead.” Kara reminds her, gently. “Alex gave that to me. It’ll reach my earpiece, anywhere. Just….just call me, okay?”

Lena doesn’t say anything, but she squeezes Kara’s hand. She hopes that says enough. And maybe it does, because Kara nods, tightly and steps away from her. And that’s the last she sees of her, before they’re bundling Lena away behind the door, and a very loud, very  _ final _ series of locks engages with hollow clicks. 

The room isn’t a prison cell. They’ve clearly tried to make it nice. There’s a tv. No WiFi, but a stack of dvds and some books. The bathroom has a scented candle and mid-range toilet paper. There’s a mini fridge with water bottles and protein snacks, fresh fruit, a jar of peanut butter, and some bread. The bed is turned down with fresh sheets, and there’s a discrete cardboard box under it—Lena checks and finds a modest-sized dildo and some alpha-scenting products, along with a vibrator. Decent enough. She’s suffered through heats with worse and less. There’s also a suppressant on the counter, and Lena takes it, although she wonders what little good it will do. 

Hours tick by. She can’t tell time unless she looks at the clock on the tv. There’s no windows, and the light never changes. It’s fluorescent, and uncomfortably bright. She lays down. Gets up. Walks around the room. Goes to the bathroom. Washes her face. Combs her hair. Walks around. Lays down. Repeat. 

The heat begins to creep up on her at approximately a half hour after Alex’s predicted time. At first, it’s just extra perspiration while she watches a workout video and attempts to do her best alongside it. Then, around 4PM, she gets a sudden craving and eats half the fruit in the fridge like a ravenous animal. Then, the cramps hit. 

And oh, god, Lena’s never felt like this. 

She’s clinging to the toilet bowl, bringing up everything in her stomach. She feels light-heated, feverish. And  _ alone _ . So very, very alone. She’s going to die here, in this room, she can feel it. Maybe on this very floor. 

It’s bad. 

Lena falls into a kind of ragged sleep on the cool tiles of the bathroom floor. She dreams of Kara, flying, searching for a bomb. The ticking sound driving her mad, as she searches too. And then she looks, and the bomb is under her rib cage, clicking away down to zero, and Kara sees it and leaps for her just as she yells  _ Don’t! _

And then she wakes. It’s five to nine, now. 

She drags herself from the tile to the bed. Her legs feel like jelly. She drops onto the comforter, unable to roll any further, and looks over with one bleary eye. The brick phone is sitting on the nightstand, where she left it. She picks it up. There’s only one number in the contact list. 

She dials it. Ends the call before it can send. Dials it again. Ends it again. 

Lena drags herself to the shower, ignoring the brick phone laying in the middle of the tossed sheets on the bed. Cold water will help. And maybe keep her from calling Kara, like a weak, helpless thing. 

The shower does help, as does the ibuprofen she manages to keep down. Too tired to change back into her nightclothes, she goes naked to the bed and winds a sheet around her damp skin. The clock reads 11pm when she closes her eyes. 

When she opens them again, it's 3am and everything in her body is on fire. 

***

Kara hasn’t slept. She doesn’t think it’s even possible. How can she sleep, when Lena is locked away like an animal? It makes her restless, to see Lena’s heart rate on the monitors, but not be able to hear it herself. She doesn’t remember a time when she couldn’t hear Lena, even from far away, if she tried, and it’s frightening. Stark. Unpleasant. 

She can’t sleep. And she can’t stay in the little room filled to the brim with beeping equipment and nervous glances, either. So she leaves Alex and Brainy to their work, and takes long, morose patrol flights around the perimeter. She’s almost hoping Lex will send something to try and intervene. She would love something to punch, something to  _ do.  _

But there’s nothing to do but think. And feel. 

The wind is cold as she makes her slow, methodical laps, but she hardly feels it. Instead, her skin is hot, as if burning in sympathy with Lena’s. She swears sometimes she can almost taste the omega’s heat on the wind—which is impossible—but it thrills her inner alpha anyway, sending signals of  _ find, chase, mount, mate _ throughout her hypersensitive body. It’s absolutely ludicrous but Kara’s innermost primitive self is mourning that she didn’t fuck Lena when she had the chance, didn’t mate her, knot her,  _ bite her…. _

It’s  _ stupid _ , and she  _ hates _ herself for wanting it. Hates that she can still feel Lena’s slick heat on her fingers—can even smell it if she tries, even under a layer of hand soap. The way the omega had gripped at her—as if she was an essential part of her body, like Kara’s slow, clumsy fingers were keeping Lena’s frame intact. Like Lena needed her as much as Kara always dreamed she might. It sighs in her veins and singes her skin, remembering how much she felt. How much she  _ wanted _ . 

But Kara knows better than to think too closely on those feelings. They’re moths in a well. If she tries to capture one of those fleeting emotions, she could drown. And sometimes, with Lena, it feels like drowning just looking into her eyes. 

Instead of processing any of that, Kara keeps flying, long after Brainy and Alex and Nia have all rotated off shift and gone to bed. Each of them tried to cajole her back to join them, in the little dorm room they’ve set up with some bunk beds, but she declines, sharply. She can’t imagine trying to sleep without hearing Lena’s heartbeat. Alex persists longer than any of them, but finally, after midnight, she relents. At least, Kara thinks she does. She could have just fallen asleep. 

When the comm buzzes in her earpiece, she’s almost annoyed. Alex shouldn’t be checking on her—if she’s awake, she should be paying attention to Lena. Her inner alpha is huffing with protective instincts when she touches the earpiece. “Alex, I really don’t want to talk—“

“Kara?”

She stops mid air, hovering over the generator bank, which blinks with steady red and green lights. “Lena?”

“Kara, I—“ There’s a noise like a choked sob, and Kara drops ten feet without realizing it, her heart sinking with her body. “I’m so sorry, but I’m scared. It  _ hurts _ .”

Kara is flying back to the blacksite house at inhuman speed, and she’s already at the door by the time the last syllable leaves the omega’s lips, but she is met with a solid block of unreadable lead, and her frustration is leaping. “Lena? I’m here. I’m here. Tell me what you’re feeling.”

Lena moans, low and agonized over the phone, and every hair on Kara’s body stands at rapt attention. Her voice is a throaty croak. 

“Feels like the worst hangover of my life, combined with the worst flu. Everything is burning or aching or hurting. And I—“ she lets out a short, unhappy laugh. “I feel like if I just came once it’d go away in an instant, but nothing I do is helping me get  _ there _ .”

“Let me help.” The words are out in an instant, and Kara doesn’t even think twice about it. She’s hardly breathing, hardly blinking, pressing herself as close as she can to the door. Inside her, the alpha instincts scream to tear it down, crumple the steel like butter and once inside—-

“Kara….” Lena’s voice is hesitant, small. But Kara can sense her need. It’s getting stronger the closer she is, and the feel of it has her almost clawing at the walls. She can only imagine how Lena must feel. 

“Let me.” She repeats, insistent. Her cock is a stiff, swollen heartbeat in her sweatpants, throbbing against her upper leg. She ignores it. Lena is more important. 

“You can’t come in.” Lena suddenly seems to have regained some Luthor authority. “Kara, you’ll get infected. You need to stay away from me, do you hear me? Stay  _ away _ .”

“Through the door.” Kara’s brain seems to have abandoned her for lower parts of her body, and it takes a while to think of the right words. “I don’t have to come in. I can...tell you what to do? See if that helps?”

A rising, breathy moan is her answer, and it thrills her from spine to sternum. “Oh, Kara. I don’t know.”

“Let’s try.” Kara closes her eyes, already desperate. She leans her cheek against the steel and imagines Lena doing the same. “Are you wearing clothes right now?”

“No.” Lena’s reply sends a needy pulse through her cock. “I can’t.”

“That’s fine. S’better.” Kara brushes her nose against the cold, impersonal steel, seeking even the barest hint of Lena’s scent. “You look  _ incredible _ without any clothes on.”

Lena takes in a breath and Kara can almost see her pupils darkening, widening. “I—-I want to see you naked, too.”

“Soon.” Kara promises, without a hint of regret. Her head is settling into alpha space now, and there’s no room for uncertainty. “But for now, just touch yourself for me. The way I would. Run your hand up your thigh. How wet are you?”

“ _ Wet _ .” Lena breathes out. She sounds drunk, now, not hungover. Kara supposes the change in focus has her scenting up the room with her desire, and she remembers it well. Orange blossom and white tea leaves. Sunrise. Summertime asphalt. Kara can almost taste it on her tongue. “So wet. For you.”

“I want to taste you. Lick your fingers for me. Tell me.” Kara gives up the ghost and goes for her waistband, freeing her cock from it’s confines in her briefs with a hiss of pleasure. 

There’s a sweet, distinct sucking nose. A wet  _ mmm _ sound. Kara’s cock throbs in her grip and she squeezes at the base to keep the pressure off. 

“Good.” She’s a little more choked now, but her brain is steady with a single-minded focus—make Lena come. “Run your index finger through it. Part your lips with it, circle your clit, but don’t touch. Tell me how that feels.”

“ _ Ah— _ “ Lena whines, and Kara can hear the rustling as she twists. “Oh god, I want more.  _ Please _ .”

“Shh. Getting there.” Kara assures, her thumb slipping over the head of her cock, collecting the pearly drops of pre-cum. “Rub around your clit in little circles, roll the hood back a bit. Get yourself worked up for me.”

Lena does as she’s bid, clearly, judging by the accompanying symphony of moans. It’s beautiful—she’s beautiful. Kara can almost see her on the bed, legs shaking, red lips parted, and it’s  _ beautiful _ . 

“Good girl.” The praise just rolls out of her and she hears Lena react to it with the loudest moan yet. “Fuck yourself now. One finger. Slow. Curl up and touch inside the front wall, rub back and forth.”

“God,  _ Kara—- _ “ Lena’s voice is high, breathy, begging. She’s never heard the omega sound like this before. So helplessly  _ submissive _ . It’s turning her on so hard she can hardly think anymore. 

Kara grunts, and begins slicking her palm up with pre-cum, readying herself. “Good. Now two.”

“Oh  _ fuck yes please.” _

“That’s it. In and out. Need you to get ready for that cock.”

Lena actually  _ whimpers _ at that and it’s thrilling. “ _ Please _ , Kara.”

“Do you have it nearby?” 

A silken, desperate rustling. “Yes, it’s here.”

“I need you to get it wet for me.” Kara’s eyes are already closed but she scrunches up even further, concentrating on the memory of the night before. “Suck it, like you sucked my cock in the stairwell last night.”

The enthusiastic noise Lena lets out is muffled by a frantic, wet sucking. Kara grunts, wild in her head, and can almost feel the omega’s lips around her weeping tip again. The darkness of her bobbing hair, the glittering light of her eyes. The red lipstick smears around the base. “That’s it. Tell me how I tasted to you. Tell me you liked it, being a good little omega like that.”

Lena releases a deep groan at that. “You taste so good. So good. I wanted—“ her breath sharpens, “I wanted you inside of me. Right then.”

Kara growls, and Lena’s whimper increases to a higher pitch. Her hand pumps harder on her cock, filling the hallway with slick noise. “Fuck,  _ Lena _ .”

“Can I?” Lena’s whine is spoiled and pretty. “Kara, I need—“

“Yes.” The alpha growls out, her jaw tight and set in lust. “Put it in.”

“God—“ The omega’s cry of bliss is choked off. Kara can hear her drawing her knees up, rocking her hips forward as the bed squeaks. She can almost feel the clinging heat and wetness when she noses into the door, desperate for sensation as her hand flies on her slick, reddened cock. “Yes, yes, Kara,  _ yes _ !”

“Do it, fuck that pretty pink cunt.” Kara is growling out words she’s never said out loud before. She’s lost in alpha brain now, jaws snapping and snarling as the pressure builds in her lower back and belly, curling toward release. “Fuck it hard like I would.”

And Lena definitely is. She can tell by the distinct, intimate wet noises she can hear over the phone’s tinny speakers, and the gloriously loud moans issuing from the omega’s pale throat. The bed crinkles and creaks, and Kara doesn’t care at all if anyone wakes and hears them. Let them all hear it. Let everyone know Lena is  _ hers _ . 

It’s a trap for both of them, she knows, a trap for fools. And  _ damn _ Lex, he knows her so well, because there’s no way she could resist this. No way in earthly hell—because if there’s an earthly  _ heaven _ , it’s between Lena’s thighs, and in the way she moans and pants and begs for more. Not even a super could deny her when she sounds like that. And Kara doesn’t even think to try. 

They’re working themselves both up, back and forth, panting at each other over the phone like animals. Kara is fully jerking herself off in the hallway just outside the door, in full view of the cameras and anyone who wakes to check them. And Lena is on the bed, on a monitor screen, twisting as she fucks herself silly with a DEO-approved dick. Kara doesn’t care. She can’t care. And neither can Lena, she knows. 

“Come for me.” She chants, when Lena’s breathy voice starts to spiral in ever-increasing crescendos of pleading. Her cock is aching, ready to spill, but she holds back. “That’s it, that’s a good girl. Come for me, Lena.”

“ _ Kara! _ ”

Lena’s scream even echoes through the steel. She can feel it reverberating in her jawbone, pressed close to the door, and it takes her by surprise with the force of desire. Kara grunts, seizing, as her cock spurts heavily in her grip, fountaining her cum over her knuckles and onto her lap in thick, steady pulses. She shudders against the door, twitching in her own sticky hand, as she listens to Lena’s frantic cries give way to soft, shuddering pants. 

She opens her eyes. A little hint of sanity starts to return to her brain and she thinks briefly of getting up to grab a handful of paper towels. But all that disappears when Lena’s breathing suddenly rises again on a hitching sob. 

“Kara I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. It didn’t work. I feel it  _ worse _ now, I—-“

Her voice breaks on a pained gasp. 

“ _ I think I’m dying. _ ”

And all rational thought flees from Kara like scattering roaches. Her brain no longer thinks. Instead, it  _ roars _ . She drops the phone to the ground, clattering away, and puts both hands onto the steel hinges of the door. 

She  _ pulls _ , and the door breaks open with a rusted scream of metal. 

***   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	8. Chapter 8

The door blows open and in a flashing instant of concrete dust and shuddering iron, Lena’s whole body goes from semi-conscious to alert and _alive._

Her agony had been eating her whole, only seconds before. Nausea, cramping, feverish aches and pains, and, over it all—a constant, horrifying emptiness. A hollow feeling. Nothing would satisfy it. Nothing would lessen it, for even a moment. 

And that all ends in a flash bulb when Kara breaks the door down. 

She doesn’t even realize she’s drawn herself up on her knees on the bed, filled with a sudden anticipatory energy and excitement thrumming along her spine, until Kara makes it across the room at teleportation speed— and they’re eye to eye. Lena knows she’s sweaty, with hair plastered to her neck. She knows she looks totally unlike herself, raw and wild, and she can see the desperate, open longing for what’s about to happen written all over her face reflected back in Kara’s eyes before the alpha takes her by the jaw and kisses the breath from her body. 

It’s a fire hazard kiss. A tinderbox. Everything detonates. 

There are warnings, sirens going off in the back of her mind, but they’re muted—unimportant. Kara is kissing her with authority and intent, and her lips are quick, catching Lena’s again and again. She’s relentless, and it gives Lena thrills to think of that same intensity applied elsewhere. And clearly, Kara’s thinking of it too, and thinking pretty keenly— judging by the way her restless hands pace up and down Lena’s bare back. 

Kara breaks off the kiss to pattern Lena’s neck and jawline with biting, sucking kisses, and she has to let out a series of inelegant moans, tilting herself back in the alpha’s grip. Her hips lift forward, without thinking, but Kara answers her back with a growl that vibrates through her collarbone and into her back teeth. It’s shiver-thrilling. She’s caught up in how luscious it feels to let Kara’s strength lead the way. It’s a feeling she’d never have admitted to anyone, just hours earlier, but now—with a confident, hand rubbing her nipple between calloused fingers—Lena feels inclined to spill open all her secrets.

It’s blinding, how fast the pain and fear and sickness leave her. It’s troubling. The pain kept her sober, awake, aware of the consequences of these damnable actions. But now that’s all gone, and Lena’s been reduced to a creature of pure omega. She’s not thinking of the consequences. How can she? Kara is hard against her belly and the alpha is deliciously rough with her hands, just the way Lena likes. It’s like Kara knows exactly where to touch her, how hard or how soft, and it’s lulling her into a sense of rightness. Of meant-to-be. She’s not sure she remembers, anymore, that there even was a threat to their coupling. 

All she can think of is how _good_ it feels now. 

And oh—it feels so good when Kara tips her back onto the bed, crawls up her fallen body with eyes like a conquering god. She spreads Lena’s legs with a quick, brusque hand, and slides her body between them, sighing with satisfaction when Lena’s legs instinctively rise to lock around her waist. 

Kara noses her neck, breathes out against her pulse. “Do you want this?” She bites, lightly, and Lena moans with a wildly racing tempo. “I want you to. I want you to want me like I want you.”

“I do.” Lena admits at last. She closes her eyes against the honesty. Tilts her head back and accepts whatever comes next. “I do want you. I lo—“

Kara’s finger lands on her lips and her eyes fly open, startled. The alpha’s face is hot and close to hers, hair curtailing them in gold. Her eyes are serious, dark. “Don’t say it now. Not now.”

At Lena’s questioning, hurt look, Kara softens. “Say it later.” She says, low. “Say it...after. When I know it means something to you. When it’s _real.”_

 _It is real._ Lena wants to argue, but Kara looks so solemn that she relents, and nods, quietly strumming her fingers through the curls at the nape of the alpha’s neck. There’s time. They’ll have plenty of it. The heat of Kara’s body, so close, the way her nipples brush against Lena’s own, nudging them into stiffer peaks—it has her fluttering in her stomach like a schoolgirl. She wants and wants and _wants_. There’s no room for any other thoughts. Any doubt. This is all she can see. 

Just Kara’s steady blue eyes, darkening at the pupils as she slips her hand between Lena’s spread thighs. 

It’s so fucking _good,_ just this. Just Kara looking at her with a smooth smile on her face as she teases along Lena’s labia, spreading her silky wet all around, getting it everywhere. So _fucking_ good, just to feel Kara play with her like this. And Lena is completely acting the fool. She’s pouting. Panting. Arching her back. Pleading with her voice cracking on the high notes whenever Kara touches her clit. This is not how Lena Luthor gets fucked. This was never how Lena Luthor got fucked. But it’s _happening_ and oh god—she’d kill anyone who stopped it. 

“So pretty.” Kara’s voice has a gnarled coarseness to it. Tree bark. Or leather rubbed the wrong way. It’s _hot._ “You’re so pretty when you ask nicely.”

“God, Kara _please—_ “ She arches, twisting again in delicious agony when Kara’s fingers move away from her cunt. 

The blunt tip nudging at her entrance brings her up short, though, on a sharp breath. Kara has herself wrapped in a slick fist, and she’s coasting her dick through Lena’s soaking wet labia, pressing against her clit for the barest of kisses. It’s a tease, and it’s shameful how she reacts to it—pressing her hips up in hopes of catching Kara’s cockhead with her needy pussy. 

“Say you want me again.” Kara instructs, her voice frustratingly calm. She holds Lena’s hip firmly, preventing any further unsteadiness. “Say it and I’ll fuck you.”

“ _I want you so fucking much_.” Lena gasps out eagerly, and thank god, Kara doesn’t make her wait anymore. 

She plunges in with one smooth, devastating thrust, and Lena throws her head back on the loudest noise yet. 

***

Alex is dreaming of Kelly in a very-revealing nurse’s uniform when she wakes to a flashlight blinding her in the face. “Hnngh? W’tcha want?”

“Sorry.” Nia’s voice is apologetic, and she lowers her phone. “Uhm. We needed to wake you.”

Alex sits up, yawning, and nearly bangs her head on the bunk above her, forgetting where she is for an instant before she remembers the events of yesterday. Buying an alpha dildo with a DEO credit card and a red face as the beta clerk curiously looked her up and down. The blacksite. Lena in a near-death fever. Kara endlessly patrolling outside. Telling Nia and Brainy to rotate watches after she went to bed. _Oh right._

“Wh’tm s’it?” Alex’s brain is waking slowly, but still not forming sentences. She frowns, grunts, and tries again. “What time is it?”

“Three forty-five AM, Director.” Brainy chimes in, authoritatively, somewhere over Nia’s left shoulder—Alex can’t see, she’s still blinking. “We thought it prudent to wake you when we saw the, ah, incident, occur.”

“Incident?” Alex cracks her back, palms pressed to her spine, and starts the slow process of haranguing her legs until they want to roll over the edge of the bunk bed. “Did a computer go down or…?”

“Brainy, just say it, we’re wasting time!” Nia stomps her foot with impatience, and it would be adorably petulant if it wasn’t also three in the morning. The omega spins on Alex grimly. “Alex, Kara broke the door down. About five minutes ago.”

“ _What?_ ” Alex drops the boot she was about to put on. “She broke the— _ohmygod._ Why didn’t you wake me sooner?” 

“I _told_ you—“

“Director, we had not yet ascertained clear security footage and I needed to be sure—“

“She broke it the fuck down, Brainy! You _heard_ that noise! We both did, while we were—”

“Please stop.” Alex holds her hand up, as comprehension slowly struggles back to her brain. “So what you’re saying is, you’re _not sure_ she broke it down? Nia, that door is three inches of lead-riddled steel. It’s a power dampener. There’s no way.“

“Yeah well that’s the thing.” Nia looks even more troubled, now, if possible, and behind her Brainy begins to clear his throat. “Um. There’s other evidence.”

“‘Other evidence’?” Alex wrinkles her nose. “Is the door broken or fucking n—“

A sudden, sharp cry with a distinctly familiar voice echoes through the hallway. It’s feminine. Breathy. Pleasurable. It makes every instinctual, alpha-brained hair on her body tingle with recognition that an omega nearby is in heat and receiving another alpha. 

And it’s _absolutely_ Lena getting railed by her sister. 

“Oh _fuck_ .” Alex surges to her feet, jamming them into her boots. Her pulse is already racing, thoughts in overdrive. “We’re _fucked_.”

“Yeah.” Nia breathes out miserably, as behind her, Brainy wrings his anxious hands. “We kinda assumed that before we woke you.”

****

Lena’s in very real danger of losing her mind. 

But it feels so fucking _good_. 

Kara’s hands on her hips. Kara’s breath on her mouth, lips and teeth and tongue. Being _filled_ with an aching, savage tenderness that steals her breath and sends it puffing out from her lungs. Kara’s round ass, pumping away under the digging heels of Lena’s impatient feet. Kara’s thick, heavy cock pumping away inside her. 

It’s like Kara is playing a bowstring between her legs. Slow and steady at first. Confident, easy. Dragging back and forth. Looking at Lena like she’s going to take all night doing this. Like she _wants_ to. Getting every inch of her inside and then taking it all away again, slowly—so sweetly, painfully slowly that Lena wants to scream. 

And then it’s not slow at all and she screams anyway. 

Kara hauls her around the bed. Impatient, imperious, demanding. Her hands are heavy and they land on Lena’s breasts, her thighs, her hips. Kara’s leaving bruises and bite marks by the dozen and she doesn’t seem to care. She’s grinning at Lena with wild, open eyes, and Lena’s delighted by the raw animal she sees in them. She wants to be marked. Wants the bruises. Let Kara ravish her, have her way. Lena wants to be taken. 

A part of her always wanted it this way. Just like this. With Kara snarling triumphantly on top of her, holding her down by her neck as she thrusts and thrusts and _thrusts_. She never thought it could be like this with Kara, though—never thought Kara would be this quick, savvy, able with her deft fingers and her smug hips. It’s like a tether has snapped in the alpha’s brain. And maybe one in her own, because she arches her back, rocking her hips up greedily for each lunging thrust, and feels her fragile human neck press into that immovable grip. 

It turns her on, how Kara tightens when she fucks deeper into Lena’s cunt. 

She comes like that, the first time, almost startled by it. Climax rushes up on her so fast she hardly has time to appreciate it before her body is ramping up again, rising to meet Kara, but it makes her gasp and shake, anyway, lingering in her blinking eyelids and twitching thighs. Kara grunts to feel her inner muscles spasm, and fucks through it, never even pausing. 

And then Kara rolls them, and she’s on top, riding Kara like a particularly unruly horse, as the alpha slams her hips up and down, lifting her like she’s a rag doll. Kara surges up, and peppers her collarbone with kisses, while Lena lets out a ragged cry to feel the alpha’s cock go so deep it feels like it’s lodged under her heart. Kara doesn’t seem to notice, or if she does, she’s so intent that she gives no outward sign, but her lips whisper against Lena’s neck. 

Against her pulse, where her scent is strongest. 

“You’d look so pretty with my mark right there. All mine. You’re all _mine,_ Lena.”

Lena’s eyes fly open in shock as a sudden, deep urge rises within her. “ _Kara—!”_

***

“Shit shit shit shit.” Alex chants as she punches in the numbers for the code. The Kryptonite shield net will take too long to boot up. There’s no time. And any other weapons they have are too deadly to be used on Kara. Red K or not, it’s still her sister in there, when all is said and down. 

At least, she hopes. 

Frustratingly, there’s nothing else she can find in the DEO database. No Kryptonite darting system, no Kara Containment Units (KCU as they’re fondly called in her universe), no drugs. Nada. Zip. Nothing. It’s like the files have been scrubbed clean of any reference to Kryptonite, even. Not even notes on Kara’s weakness to it. Maddening. 

She’s still searching, close to tearing her hair out, when Nia comes jogging back. “Okay, Brainy packed up the last of the squad and sent them to wait at the rendezvous point. Is the shield up?”

“Not even close.” Alex moans, and turns the laptop so Nia can see the loading bar. The laptop is plugged into a very large generator that Alex is also sitting on. It’s rumbling but not at the speed that it needs to be. “We’re at 13% and holding.”

“Well, that’s not good, given the pace of what’s happening in there.” Nia informs her, brow wrinkling. “At this rate, Kara will have worked out every hole in Lena’s body and then some before we even—-“

“Oh my _god,_ Nia. So not helpful.” Alex flashes her a glare, and returns to furious key clacking. “I cannot stress how unhelpful that statement is.”

“Well what do you want us to do?” Nia throws her hands up. “We’re staying, Brainy and I agreed—but it seems like Kara’s going to get all Red Roid Rage on us before we even have a plan.”

“We had a plan, and we’re going to stick to it.” Alex recites, grimly determined. Her eyes haven’t left the screen. “I’m staying to get the shield up and to try to keep Lena safe if Kara flips out. You and Brainy are staying on the grounds to try and talk Kara down if she gets past me. Shit. _When_ she gets past me.”

“And if the Kryptonite shield isn’t up by then?” Nia’s gnawing on a thumbnail, eyebrows in a worried arch. 

Alex shrugs. “I have no idea.” She gestures at the hallway, where the noise is still going. It’d been steady for the last half hour. “I need Lena to help me design an antidote dart, if it comes to that.”

“Yeah well….” Nia looks over her shoulder as another desperate moan snags on both of their keyed-up senses. Both wince as one. “Looks like she’s gonna be busy for a while.”

***

“Kara, Kara please, _please—“_

Lena is scrabbling at Kara’s back, digging her heels into the ruined mattress, arching as close as she can...but still the alpha won’t knot her. She’s clearly enjoying the teasing, too, judging by the way she grunts appreciatively at Lena’s struggles. The alpha keeps rocking her hips close, seating her cock as far as it will go against the growing bulge of her knot, and then almost letting it slip past the heated ring of muscle there. _Almost_. Then she pulls back, every time. Grinds in again. It’s maddening. 

Lena’s almost in tears. She’s never been denied like this. Luthors aren’t generally used to being told _‘no’_ in any capacity—even an omega Luthor. But the way Kara holds her by the wrists, keeping her from assisting the process, pinning her down...she’d be lying if she said it wasn’t hot. 

Just also very, very frustrating. 

Kara nips at her neck, and the dangerous scrape of her teeth sends a compliant shudder through Lena. She slackens in Kara’s grip, and the alpha growls approvingly. “You’re begging so nice for me. So nice. Never thought I’d see you beg.”

Lena wants to retort at that, but the way the alpha finally— _finally—_ starts to press deeper makes her shut up quickly. Instead she moans. She’s been doing a lot of that lately. Loud, helpless noises. There’s a part of her, a tiny background part, that is vaguely aware that they’re not alone in this safehouse and the door’s blown in—but that’s getting buried under layers of pheromones, sweat, and heat. 

She doesn’t care anymore if everyone sees her and Kara rutting away like animals. Let them see. Let the whole city watch for all she cares right now. Similarly, the Red Kryptonite threat is equally far from her mind. She doesn’t even, perhaps, remember that she has a brother right now, let alone an evil mastermind one. 

It’s all Kara. The _need_ for her. The ache between her legs at the sweetly burning stretch. The way she feels desperate for the alpha to give her something she can’t name, can’t describe. 

“Shhh.” She must’ve been whimpering like a plaintive, weak little thing, because Kara is kissing her, slow and heavy. “I’m going to give it to you. Just relax. _Easy_.”

Lena realizes her helpless, instinctive muscles are clenching hard on the knot to pull it deeper, and that won’t do at all until it’s actually inside. She has to physically focus and force her body to calm down and open for Kara’s entry. It’s like every inch of her skin is too keyed up and overworked to think of anything but the knotting itself, not the process. 

But oh, when Kara finally rocks forward and presses inside with a firm drive of her hips—-

Her clit rubs once against the inflated base of Kara’s cock, and that’s all it takes. She comes almost silently, mouth wrenched open against Kara’s rutting shoulder, tasting the salt of her skin. There are tears rolling down her cheeks, but she isn’t crying. It feels like relief. Like perfect, instant connection. And Kara feels it too. She can tell by the way the alpha shudders and twitches inside of her, breath ragged and fast, hands gripping feathery holes into the mattress. 

“Lena—!” Kara calls out, sounding for a moment entirely small and helpless, and then she’s groaning, mouthing at Lena’s neck with a kind of slick desperation as she grinds their lower bodies together, rubbing out every frantic ounce of pleasure she can manage. Lena instinctively flutters around the thickness inside her, and Kara’s cock gives a powerful pulse. And then she’s coming in steady pulses, filling Lena while the omega cries out and succumbs to another orgasm herself. 

It’s an endless loop for a while. Shuddering and jerking. Moaning and sighing. Lena doesn’t want it to ever end. It feels like bliss. She clings to Kara and lets her body guide the way. It feels _right_. 

But, impossibly, after all-too-brief a respite, Lena begins to feel the creeping ache of her need spread its fingers out from her spine. She would apologize to Kara, but the alpha is still iron-hard inside of her, and hasn’t seemed to stop panting. Her mouth is wet at Lena’s neck, urgently sucking and grunting as she noses at Lena’s pulse. It feels like she needs something more. It feels like maybe they both do. 

So when she begins to shift and moan against Kara once more with intent, she’s not surprised when the alpha responds eagerly. She is, however, surprised when Kara pulls out. Lena lets out a sharp cry of disappointment, but the knot has softened considerably, so there is no pain. Just a small tide of their shared cum. She shifts on the mattress, whining a bit, until Kara hauls her upright by her hips and kisses the pout from her lips. 

“I—I need you again.” She pants into Lena’s mouth. “Feels like I’m on fire.”

Lena is already nodding. She feels it too. “Please.”

She starts to lay back on her elbows again, but Kara twists her around, hands digging into her hipbones. The alpha’s eyes are wild, and she catches a glimpse of a tinge of red, before Kara puts a heavy hand between her shoulderblades and forces her down. 

“On your belly.” Kara instructs, needlessly, sounding harried and distant. “There. That’s it. Ass up. Spread.” A stinging slap makes Lena hurry to comply with the last order. “Good.”

Lena muffles her wail into the pillows when Kara mounts her from behind, driving in deep without a moment’s pause. This time feels unhinged, less restrained. She should feel afraid...but she doesn’t. 

She feels anticipation. 

***

“Sir?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m so sorry to wake you, Mr. Luthor, but you mentioned you wanted—“

“That’s quite alright, Eve. I wasn’t sleeping. Did you come to tell me the implant was successful?”

“I—It appears so, yes, sir.” 

“Wonderful news. You know your next orders. Begin stage one of Project Troy.”

“Yes, sir.” 

“And Eve?”

“Sir?”

“Send my sister a wreath. Something classy, but big. Lilies, perhaps. Enclosed card should read: ‘Your love was always a death sentence’.” 

“....Yes, sir.”

***

“There!” Alex slaps the side of the generator, triumphantly. “100%! We did it! The shield should be up any second now.”

“I really thought we’d be down to the wire on this.” Nia shakes her head admiringly. “Alex, you’re a genius.”

“Well, your sister is not yet done with her mating of Lena Luthor, it seems, so you had ample time, given her apparent stamina.” Brainy informs them. He blinks when Nia shoves an elbow into his side. “What did I say?”

“No, Brainy’s right. Just unnecessarily detailed.” Alex runs a tired hand through her hair. When this is all over she intends to head straight to a shower, and then her own bed. Preferably with Kelly, if possible. “I’m just glad we finished before she—“

But she frowns. “Wait. Why isn’t the signal picking up?”

Brainy leans over her shoulder. “That shouldn’t be. Why wouldn’t the Kryptonite signature register?” He makes a disquieted noise. “That wouldn’t happen unless…”

“Unless there wasn’t any Kryptonite powering it.” Alex finishes with him. Her stomach is sinking into Titanic-levels of ice cold water. “Nia, run the file search again. Cross reference.”

Nia opens up her tablet and makes a frustrated sound. “The DEO files are down. Someone’s hacked us!”

“Not someone.” Alex supplies, simply. “Lex.”

“Crap.” Nia breathes out, as Brainy continues to frown at the laptop. “What are we gonna do now?”

“I have no idea.” Alex closes her eyes and rubs her head. “It’s up to Kara, now. But given my past experiences? I’d say we should start running.” She connects with both Brainy and Nia’s eyes, grimly. 

“And _fast._ ”

***

“Faster, Kara, please!”

Lena’s upper half is flat on the mattress, and she’s sliding inexorably forward with each lunging thrust, but she’s begging anyway. Kara’s close to knotting her again, and her body is as ravenous for it as it was the first time, as if it never even satiated the hunger for a single second. Her demands are met with a grunt, and then the brutal pace increases, Kara’s hips pummeling into her backside. 

“Oh god, yes, yes, _yes—_!” 

Lena might be insensate. Or perhaps is losing too many brain cells. She’s gone, lost. Her body is screaming and her lungs are raw, but she keeps begging, mindlessly, caught up in the lusty tangle of their bodies meeting again and again. She’s sore and bruised and mind-drained but she feels like she might actually die if Kara doesn’t knot her again. And again. As many times as it takes for—

“Good girl.” Kara’s teeth scrape her shoulder, and the alpha’s languid slide over her body helps her knot to start the agonizing, glorious stretch. “My good girl.”

Lena is helpless but to agree with sobbing _yes yes yes_ ’s as she allows Kara’s knot to slip past her tender muscles. It’s easier this time, with the help of the previous knotting, and the gravity of Kara’s position, and when it heavily presses inside her at last, she cries out at the sudden-but-welcomed fullness. 

“Lena, Lena, _Lena_.” Kara’s breath is hot on her skin, and she’s still thrusting, seemingly driven to deeper need. Every hair on the nape of Lena’s neck is standing up. The words seem to shiver across her skin. “All mine. All _mine_.”

Lena feels what’s about to come when Kara drives deeper, teeth scraping on the back of her neck. She could twist away. She could try to stop it. But she doesn’t. 

She closes her eyes and feels every ounce of herself sing in welcome as Kara bites down on the back of her neck, and sinks a deep mating hold. A _claiming_ mark. A breeding bite. 

The force of it startles her into coming again, overstimulated flesh near-weeping at the constant barrage, and she feels Kara grunt into her neck, releasing at the same time in a torrent of their shared pleasure. There is real, unfettered bliss in the way Kara holds her down, shuddering out the urges of her body, as her teeth secure Lena’s whole world. She’s been caught, claimed. But in that moment, all she feels is a strange, almost terrifying freedom. 

The breeding takes a while. Kara finally leaves off biting her and starts licking and suckling at the mark, letting out soothing pheromones. In reaction, Lena’s exhausted body goes limp and slack at last, released of her heat. She’s sweaty and sticky and tired, covered in cum, but she feels a thousand times better than she did just hours before. Contented, peaceful even. Like everything is right with the world. 

Kara pulls out of her slowly, and she rolls into a lazy stretch, feeling the slow rush of their cum spill out and trickle down her leg. She’ll need to shower. Kara too. And then, later, when she’s not so sore, she’ll climb aboard her perfect hulk of an alpha and give her a mating bite of her—

And then Kara turns to face her, smile imperious and strangely distant, and she sees the red veins for the first time. The crackling black expanse under her skin. The way her pupils have gone inky dark and all consuming. 

“ _Kara?”_

Lena recoils so fast she almost falls off the bed. Her heart is pounding, even as her newly-imprinted mating mark stings at being farther away from her alpha. With her heat gone, a sudden, sick clarity drops onto everything and she realizes Kara, her Kara, is not the one who mated her. 

It is Lex’s sick plan, come to fruition. And she can only blame herself. 

Kara rises off the bed, and in an eye blink, she’s dressed again, the Supersuit torn at one shoulder but otherwise intact. She’s still smiling. It’s unpleasant. 

“Please, Kara.” Lena doesn’t know what to say. She wets her lips. “Let me help you.”

The alpha superspeeds to her side, and she can’t help but yelp in fear and surprise, pressing herself to the floor. Kara cups her jaw even as she shakes, and shushes her, brushing away the hair stuck to her face. 

“Lena, sweetheart. Shhh. You’ve already helped me _so_ much.” She flashes too much teeth in her smile and Lena’s gut twists. Kara would never smile like that. “I feel better, don’t you? You look better.”

It’s true. The sickness is gone, and with it, Lena’s unnatural heat. And her head is unfortunately, brutally clear. “Kara, you could hurt people. Hurt me. Is that what you want?”

“Oh my love.” The word is said with almost genuine tenderness. Lena blinks, startled. Kara thumbs over her lips, sweetly. “You don’t need to worry about that. I would never hurt my mate.”

Lena lets out an audible sigh of relief. Perhaps Kara can be reasoned with, perhaps she can be talked down. Perhaps things are a little less—

Kara stands up, still smiling down at her with that strange, distant expression. “And you don’t need to worry ever again.” 

“Why would that be so?” Lena asks, looking up into the eyes of a literal God from beyond space and time, but she has a sinking feeling she already knows. 

“Because I’m going to go kill your brother.” Kara informs her, simply. 

And then she leaps up through the ceiling in a circle of falling insulation and plaster dust, and is gone into the inky blackness of the night sky. 

***


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Remember this story? I sure do! (Now, anyway.) And it’s almost done! Bear with me. 
> 
> Or don’t, you’re the master of your own ship here. Happy August! Wear masks!

The sun is red, and Kara is rising with it. 

She coasts over the warm updrafts, gliding through weightless mist clouds that slide over her suit and evaporate with equal quickness. She feels her strength glowing in her body and it’s a pleasant warmth. She welcomes it. She’s spent so long trying to hold it back. But it’s all hers now. All her own. 

It feels  _ good _ to be strong. Freeing. On Krypton she was so weak, so  _ weak _ , and helpless to stop it. Helpless to save her parents, save Kal, save anyone. 

Here she isn’t weak. Here, she is a  _ God _ . 

It felt  _ good _ to claim Lena. She’s been feeling the urge in her inner alpha for many years, but denied herself. Over and over again. Telling herself the alpha didn’t control her, she controlled it. That Lena wasn’t an object to be claimed. 

But she was, in the end. All humans are. Simple, breakable bodies. Bowing to her will, as they’re meant. Lena is better than them all, of course, better than the rest. But she is still a human, and Kara conquered her body with every sense of justification. Lena was hers and it felt  _ right _ . It felt good to  _ take _ her. To rut into her, to knot her helpless, mewling body and see her cunt expand. How could she allow anyone else to claim Lena, when she was right there—a living god among scrabbling fleas? It was her right, her gift, to have the only omega worth claiming amongst them. She took what was offered without question. 

And she knows Lena is  _ hers _ , without question. 

She can see the Luthor Tower in the distance. It’s tall. Taller than L-Corp was in Earth-38. It has a forbidding black sheen, and the name LUTHOR stands tall in thirty-foot letters from the peak, looking down at all the peasants below. Lena would hate it. 

And she’s decided to be in the practice of being generous to her new mate, so she kicks off in the air like a swimmer from the backboard, putting on an extra burst of speed—and flies right through the center of it. 

She can hear explosions. A few bursting pipes. But that’s not enough. She returns for another pass. And another. There’s a few screams now—early bird workers who came in to get started on projects or avoid the afternoon rush. She doesn’t care about them. She laughs, to watch them run like ants, avoiding falling girders. Or not. 

It’s freeing, how little she cares. 

***

Alex won’t look Lena in the eye. 

Which wouldn’t be a problem if there wasn’t so much to see. 

The alpha blushes and rubs her neck, eyes firmly fixed between her booted feet. “We’re working on getting you—ah—some clothes.”

“I’m sorry. I honestly don’t know what happened to my other ones.” Lena winds the sheet a little closer around her midriff, but the point is moot—there’s a gaping, ragged hole right down the center of it. 

She’s sure she looks distressingly well-fucked. Feathers in her hair from the ruined mattress, bruises mottling her skin from top to toes, and a dazed look. There’s absolutely no hiding it. Lena feels for Alex—she really does.  _ She _ wouldn’t like to have to de-brief one of Lex’s conquests directly post-coitus. It’s hideously awkward. 

Above them—through a jagged hole in the ceiling spilling tufts of insulation and the broken ends of several pipes—dawn is breaking. And Kara is nowhere in sight. 

That’s awkward too. Because it’s Lena’s fault. She shifts, uncomfortably, and tights the sheet in her grip. “Alex, I’m s—“

“Lena, I’m so sorry.” Alex’s apology cuts hers off at the starting gate. The elder Danvers alpha has such sincerity in her eyes that Lena has to look away. “We should have protected you better. Done more.”

“No, Alex, it was me, I—“

“I have to ask.” Alex’s gaze is unblinking, single-focused. “Did she...did she hurt you? Were you forced?”

“Alex,  _ no _ .” Lena is both baffled and horrified at the suggestion. “Kara didn’t rape me. I wanted this. I  _ begged _ her to come inside.” She blushes, hard, as the double meaning of her words lands on Alex’s widening eyes. “I mean. Inside the door, that is.”

“But she was—“

“I don’t know when the Red K took over. But she wasn’t hurting me, Alex.” Lena reiterates, firm but quiet. She takes a calming lungful of air. “I—- _ we _ —wanted this.”

“Well, I mean anyone with a brain and two eyes could see  _ that _ .” Alex snorts at her, but it’s affectionate. Her eyes are still searching. “But...Lena, I have to ask about the mark.”

Her fingers go to it, instinctively. It’s still sore, and stings to the touch. Right at the back of her neck, above her shoulders. Alex can’t see it, probably, but she can certainly smell it. An alpha would know, of course, that an omega had been claimed by her changing scent. Lena knows her biology like anyone else. She just didn’t expect to have  _ this _ conversation so early on. 

And without Kara to do the heft of it. 

“We didn’t talk about it.” She admits, softly. It’s hard to look Alex in the eye. “She just sort of….did it?”

Alex’s breath sucks in, quickly. “Lena, that’s not okay.”

Lena shakes her head, stubbornly. “I don’t think she meant to do it. I think it was the Red K, by then.” It’s her secret fear, but she frames it more like an optimistic option. “And once we figure out an antidote, I’m sure it’ll fade away.”

That is pure lie, and it’s hard to sell, judging by the way Alex’s lip quirks at her expression. An unreciprocated mark will fade, sure, but Lena’s not  _ quite _ so sure she falls into that category—not with the way her whole body now quickens with such new intensity at the mere thought of Kara. But she also knows Kara’s choice could be due to the infectious Kryptonite working its way through the alpha’s veins, and that thought is a sober reality to the swelling, primal instincts of her newly-mated body. 

“Do you  _ want _ it to fade away?” 

Alex’s question is a sharp truth she can’t avoid, and she can tell she’s given herself away instantly by the way the alpha looks at her with a kind of sympathy. 

Lena opens her mouth, hesitant. “I—“

Brainy chooses that moment to poke his head in through the ruined remains of the door. “We’ve procured clothing, but unfortunately it is several sizes too large. Nia is searching in the vehicle for some thread. I have been tasked with informing you of her desire for a needle.”

Alex points vaguely. “I’ve got some in my medic bag. Thread, too, if she needs it.” The beta nods smoothly and begins to depart. “Brainy?” He jerks back, questioningly. “Any sign of Kara?”

“None.” His expressions are often too stoic to read, but there’s no mistaking the apologetic glance at Lena. “She appears to have disabled the tracking software before departing.”

“She doesn’t want us to know where she’s going.” Alex sighs, heavily. She runs a harried hand through her hair. “Fuck. I don’t like that.”

“I know where she’s going.” Lena says, quietly, and her heart clenches in two different places.

***

“Sir?”

“Eve. You’re interrupting my Beethoven and coffee. This is the morning routine, Eve. Sacred. You know this.”

“I do know, sir, but there are some growing concerns among the staff.”

“Such as?”

“Well, the destruction of the Luthor tower, for one, left many in the—“

“Tantrums. Outbursts. Did we not expect just such occasions, Eve? Did we not plan for them?” 

“Yes, sir, but the traps seem to have failed. Supergirl is still—“

“One trap. Singular. That was one stage, Eve. One domino in the chain. We will have them all fall before she is contained. Dawn is over, the morning has begun. Where is she now?”

“Ah. That’s the concern, sir. She’s...she appears to be off our tracking system.”

(A significant pause.)

“....what?”

“Supergirl has removed the DEO tracking devices. She disabled the network core, and subsequently all of our bugs went dead. Sometime just after the tower went down.”

(Unintelligible noises.)

“Well. That is disheartening. But onward we must go. Move to Stage Two, Eve.”

“The—the um, desecration?”

“Yes. Send a team to the DEO’s little hidey-hole and procure my sister’s body in whatever ragged ruins it may lie. Tell them to kill Alex Danvers, if they can. That would make for a nice double hitter.”

“Yes, sir.”

“When they’re done, bring the bodies to me. If she won’t be found, we’ll simply have to make her show herself.”

“.....sir, not to be obtuse, but...won’t that just make her  _ more _ angry?”

“Of course it will, Eve. And when she’s angry, and driven mad by the Kryptonite in her veins, she will be as stupid as a Spanish bull, lurching after the matador in the ring, while we wait with spears at the ready. It’s rather  _ gauche _ , I’ll admit, but such are the tactics one resorts to when one must fight a bull. Now. Go get my sister’s corpse and bring it here. I’m going to drape it like a red flag over the ruined Luthor tower. See if that doesn’t bring her back in a  _ hurry _ .”

“Yes, sir.”

***

“Alex, why are there men shooting at us?” Nia yells over the cacophony. She and Brainy are pinned down behind the remains of the kitchen table, fingers plugging their ears over the retort of the machine guns. 

“I don’t know!” Alex yells back, as she reloads. She’s tired of answering questions and her throat is sore. “Just shut up and try to hit them with your whip thing!”

“I can’t!” Nia yells back. “I can’t aim with all this—“

“They’re here for me.” Lena says beside her, calm as a cucumber salad served at the Ritz-Carlton high tea. She hands Alex a small bundle of wires and what appears to be a doorbell plate. “Hold this, will you?”

“What—sure.” Alex takes it, distractedly, and sights her gun over the omega’s left shoulder. She fires, and Lena leans slightly to one side, seemingly unruffled. A scream is her reward. “Got one. What do you mean they’re here for you? You think these are Lex’s goons?”

“I assume so, yes.” Lena produces a battery from inside the baggy folds of her too-large DEO sweatpants and connects it to the bundle of wires. “There we go. Hang on while that charges.”

“What is it?” Alex asks, as she’s aiming again, only half-paying attention. 

“An improvised explosive device. Cover your ears, please.”

“ _ What? _ ”

But Lena’s too busy cupping her hands and yelling over to Brainy and Nia. “ _ Cover your ears!” _

Brainy nods, immediately, and grabs Nia, covering her with his body like a shield, even as the omega says  _ what, why _ ? into his elbow. Alex is slower on the uptake. “Lena, what are you—“

“Cover your ears and duck, please.” Lena says, primly, and Alex’s militaristic reflexes kick in without any real agency on her part. She ducks, hands slapping over her ears. 

There’s a sudden flash of blinding white, and a searing heat that ripples overhead. A huge rush of noiseless sound in her ears, thudding through her palms and then a delayed, bone-shuddering bang. Her ears are ringing, and smoke is in her mouth and her eyes, making her cough, and as she opens her eyes and looks around, there’s a large, gaping hole where the kitchen wall used to be. Under the rubble, groaning or dead already, are most of the remaining hired killers, black boots sticking out at odd angles amongst the concrete hunks in a way that makes Alex sick. 

But a few are staggering upright, and she sights her gun again, ignoring the roaring, whooshing feeling in her gut. 

To her left, however, Nia has already gotten to her feet faster than the Luthor goons could have anticipated, and she’s whooping, unleashing a blue crackling whip of energy that lashes across the first two before they can get their guns up in time. They slam into the remains of the back room, and slide down with a sickening thud. The third, however, has time to fire off a shot that thankfully goes wild as Brainy swings a hunk of rubble into his midsection. 

Alex gets to her feet, firing, and manages to take out the fourth and fifth, but it’s Lena who racks a DEO-issued shotgun (that had been sitting unattended beside the door from the night watch) and takes out the sixth with a kind of grim determination that speaks of  _ years _ of being tired of this shit. It’s a bit awe-inspiring. She can see why the most raw, core version of Kara would want to claim Lena, given the chance. 

But she doesn’t get to think about the reality of possibly having a sister-in-law when this is over, because Lena is already up and moving over the wreckage, looking for a body that isn’t too damaged. “Hang on, Lena don’t—“

Lena already has the shotgun angled under the groaning chin of a man with a bone sticking out of his leg. “Where’s Lex’s latest little rat hole? Where’s he hiding?”

The goon spits blood into her face, but Lena hardly blinks. “Go to hell you rotten cunt. You were supposed to be  _ dead _ . Supergirl was s’posed to fuck you to pieces.”

“Well, she didn’t.” Lena says, calm and cold. “Either tell me and I let you live to let him know I’m coming, or don’t tell me and I blow your other leg off.”

“Stupid spoiled omega bitch. Should’ve been hollowed out by—“ 

Lena leans the shotgun against the goon’s crotch, almost tenderly, and he yelps, and tries to scrabble away. “Fuck!  _ Alright! _ He’s at the Science and Industry Hall! In National City!”

“Well, that was predictable.” Lena shoulders her weapon and looks purposefully at Alex. “Coming?”

“Hang on.” Nia waves a hand. “Don’t you need backup?”

“And an antidote?” Alex jumps in, climbing over a piece of wrecked marble that was once a kitchen island as the group makes its way out into morning air. Improbably, there are birds singing. “Lena, we don’t even know if she knows where he is.”

“We need to stop at my lab on the way. It’s at a secret location in the city. Midtown. Shouldn’t be too much traffic.” Lena fixes Alex with a raised chin. “She wants him, whenever he is. It won’t take her long to find him. We need to get to her first.”

“Yeah, well, you still definitely need backup. Especially if we’re going after a Red K-hyped Kara.” Alex touches the omega’s arm, gently. “Lena, listen, I know you know her very well but—“

“But what, Alex? She’s not a monster just because she’s been infected.” Lena is fired up, furious with newly mated hormones, and she wrenches out of Alex’s grip immediately. The alpha winces—she shouldn’t have tried touching her, that was a mistake. “Don’t let your sister hear you talk that way.”

“Lena, Alex is just trying to protect you.” Nia puts in, gently. Her omega pheromones are releasing in smooth waves, letting Lena know there’s no danger here. “From what I hear, Red K Kara may not be as….rational as you think.”

“But she’s still Kara. Right?” The way Lena looks at Alex with such helplessness breaks her heart. She wants to protect Lena in many ways, right now. “Right, Alex?”

“Lena.” She swallows. “The last time Kara was infected with Red K, she broke my arm and threw Cat Grant off a building. I just think we need to be...  _ cautious _ .”

Lena’s eyes are huge. “She….broke your arm?” 

Alex nods, slowly. “She could have done worse. We got the antidote in her in time. But we don’t have the antidote in this universe.” Her hand hovers, not quite touching Lena’s. “I want to prepare you in case...in case of the worst scenario.”

“Oh.” Lena looks lost, for a moment. Only a moment, though, to her credit. “Well. We can’t let that worst-case scenario happen.”

“Agreed. We need a plan to make an antidote.” Brainy pipes in, for the first time. He must’ve finally learned to read the room. “I assume your laboratory facilities are more than adequate, Lena, but there are many elements to consider. The most difficult of which will be obtaining some of Kara’s DNA.”

“Um.” Lena shifts her legs, and there’s a sudden flush to her features. “I’m not….entirely concerned we’ll have a problem with that.”

Nia begins laughing in the background, but Brainy looks uncomprehending, and even Alex takes a minute before she blanches. 

“Oh,  _ gross _ . We’re so going to burn those sweats later.” 

***

Kara is finding the morning nothing short of revelatory. 

She’s warmed up, humming in her skin, and her strength is boundless, endless. The Luthor Tower was the first to go. Then the police station, when they foolishly tried to stop her. Heat vision is a glorious thing. The fire spreads and destroys the courthouse. All of downtown is ablaze. She can feel its warmth even now, blocks away, as she circles the Catco building. Inside, she hears the frantic buzzing of a thousand tweets and livestreams firing away, clicking like little insects.  _ Supergirl Destroys Downtown. Supergirl Gone Mad. Supergirl On A Rampage.  _

She thinks about blasting through her office with a single fist. Shattering all her awards on the wall. Heat-melting her laptop. She thinks about how it would feel to slap Andrea’s ass and send her running away. Inferior to Lena anyway. But no, Andrea is Lena’s friend. And Lena wouldn’t like it if she destroyed Catco. 

So instead she goes to the Oblivion headquarters and lasers up the place, enjoying the screams as people run haphazardly for the stairs and elevators. 

That done, she starts to find and dismantle all the silly traps Lex laid out for her, all around the city. Foolish, nearsighted man. He assumes so much. Always treading on her good will. Assuming she’ll let him keep going out of a sense of justice. Desire to see him crucified through the court system, and not, as he richly deserves, on the top of the Catco building. 

But he’s assumed too much, for too long. And Kara intends to teach him that today, as she crunches little weapons as if they were toys. Some of the weaponry is Kryptonite-based. Not all, but some. Kara can tell he’s reserving his stash, though. He must have used a lot caching all of this around. She intends to make it a wasted effort. 

And then, afterwards, she intends to fuck Lena on top of the ashes of all his plans. 

Maybe she’ll keep Lex alive long enough to make him watch. She hasn’t decided yet. There’s plenty of time. She whistles, when she thinks about it. Whistles and blasts apart device after device, without ever even breaking a sweat. 

All in all, she’s having a very good time and it’s not even noon. 

***

“Sir?”

“Yes, Eve, what the  _ hell _ is it now?”

“She’s disabled all our communication lines now, sir. The vanguard team seems to have….disappeared. So has K-Squad. They screamed something about  _ burning _ before the line went dead.”

“Where is she now? Damn it, how can sixty fucking thousand dollars of camera equipment all go down at once?”

“She pulled the cameras down. One by one. She laughed while she did it, sir.”

“Don’t be hyperbolic, Eve, it doesn’t suit you. I asked where she is now, not what she’s done.”

“As best we can ascertain….she’s somewhere very nearby, sir.” (An audible swallow.) “Lex, I really do think we should consider going somewhere—-“

“I’m not in the habit of taking advice from my subordinates,  _ Eve _ .”

(A sudden, ominous crash. Screams in the distance. Thudding.) 

“ _ Lex!”  _

“Calm down, the lights just went out. You women get hysterical over nothing.”

“Oh god, she’s  _ here _ .” 

“She is not. It’s an electrical storm or something. Let go of my hand. You’re becoming very emotional and it’s not—“

(More crashing. A single scream. Then— ominous silence.)

“Hello,  _ Lex _ .” 

***


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guess what? This story is almost done! You all have been fantastically supportive readers and I enjoy every single one of your comments. Thank you all for a wild spring and summer ride and a good (I hope) distraction from the world on fire.

Lena is only vaguely aware of the shattered remains of Lex’s office. Her vision is fuzzy, white around the edges and only going sharp when she blinks. Alex’s voice in her ear is a muted murmur, until she tilts her head and presses the comm link again. 

“I’m sorry, Alex, what was that?”

“I said we haven’t found anything on this floor yet, but we’re still searching for Lex. Or his...uh...remains.” Alex’s voice is tinny, but clear enough to read as rough-edged. She’s trying to be empathetic, Lena knows. It must be hard—Lex is (was? Lena still doesn’t know) never the type of family member anyone wants to be empathetic about, and she doesn’t blame them. 

But that doesn’t make it any easier to see what is likely her brother’s blood in a darkening brown smear on the walls. 

_ Kara did this.  _

The mark at the back of her neck itches, and she turns abruptly from the stain on the wall, focusing her efforts instead on Lex’s overturned desk. She doesn’t want to meditate on what Kara might have done, or is doing. Not now, anyway. 

The desk is too heavy to lift, but by providence or fate, the drawer she needs is already slid open, the handle smashed into the floor but the opening wide enough for her to put her wrist in, at an angle. She fits her palm to the biometric lock in the drawer, and a low chime and the whoosh of hidden doors behind her tells her that she’s succeeded in finding Lex’s real office. 

And the click of a gun behind her left ear tells her she’s also succeeded in finding Eve Teschmacher. 

“You think that lock opens for just anyone?” The omega’s voice is slightly hysterical—a tone too high and stressed on her pitch. The shadow of the gun over Lena’s shoulder is wavering. “I knew you’d come. You sent  _ her _ first and then you come to pick through the rubble. You conniving  _ bitch— _ “

Lena has had three years of personal defense courses from the best bodyguard academies. She’s spent her time post-quarterly-assasination-attempts in training. But still, it’s a matter of some surprise to her own self at how quickly she manages to act. Back goes her elbow into Eve’s knee. Down comes Eve with a  _ ‘whuff’ _ of displeasure and pain. And Lena throws her weight up with one shoulder to knock the gun free. 

The shot goes off, but it’s wild, scattering plaster from the ceiling. It’s still deafeningly close to her ear, though, so there’s an unfortunate ringing in her skull, throbbing in her eardrums, but she shakes her head clear of the fog, even as Alex’s voice shrills into her other ear. “Lena! What was that? Was that a  _ gun _ ? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Alex.” Lena grits out, as she goes headlong into Eve’s fallen midsection with a grunt. A hand is in her face, scratching at her eyes, but she ignores it and pins the blonde by her throat. “But send a team up here, please. Thank you.”

Eve lets out a very pleasing gurgle, and her pretty blue eyes go wide as she struggles at Lena’s wrist. Her other hand spasms out, searching for the gun, but Lena nudges it further out of reach. 

“Now, now, Eve. We really do have  _ too _ much to talk about. “

***

Alex had insisted on Geneva Convention-appropriate treatment of their prisoner, and to an extent, Lena agreed. But that didn’t stop her from giving Eve as many menacing glances as she could and scenting the air with her particular omega perfume. Alphas weren’t the only ones who could have pissing contests. 

Eve is definitely sweating it, for sure. She’s tied to an office chair that keeps rolling slightly with her fearful twitches, and her eyes are bugged out over her gag. Alex hadn’t wanted her to bring any unwarranted attention, and Lena’s agreement had been enthusiastic. She enjoys how Eve’s eyes keep darting from her to Alex and back. It is a quiet, very Luthor-like feeling of vindicated malice. 

Unfortunately, she can only revel in it for so long. 

They’ve been digging around in Lex’s private office for a half hour and it feels invasive, like being allowed to peek inside his brain. Part of her resents allowing these strangers to see her brother’s machinations, his private thoughts. But another part of her is well aware that Lex would greedily do the same to her, with few to none of the same compunctions, and although it should allow her some self-justification...it mostly just saddens her. The emotions feel heavy, slowing her limbs and thoughts like molasses. 

Perhaps that’s why it’s Alex who finds Lex’s precious, sacred diary, tucked behind a statue of Hercules on his black marble bookshelf. If they are digging around in Lex’s brain, this is the nerve center. It’s all in code, of course, cypher that Alex is frowning over, but Lena sees it right away. 

And it’s sobering. 

“Alex, can you get Brainy in here?” She clutches the edges of the desk but tries not to let her white knuckles show. “Soon as you can, please.” 

“Why?” Damn that Danvers perceptiveness. It’s innate. Alex is wrinkling her brow in the stubborn way that means she’s sensed Lena’s anxiety.  _ Just as bad as Kara.  _ “Is it bad news?”

“I don’t know yet.” She forces a-hopefully-reassuring smile through her clenched gullet. “Just need a second opinion.”

Alex, thankfully, doesn’t call her bluff and steps out to call for Brainy to look over the diary, which takes her a few rooms away for better signal. 

And that leaves Lena alone with Eve. Bound and gagged. It’s like a particularly bad omega-on-omega porn—made definitely worse when she climbs onto the omega’s lap and rips her gag off, intimately close as she pushes her DEO-issued gun right under that blinking, desperate blue eye. 

“What do you know? Tell me or I blow your head off before she comes back.”

“I don’t know anything!” Eve babbles, desperate and uneasy, but her eye is darting. Her mouth opens wider. “ _ Hel—“ _

Lena’s fist intercedes her cry for help. Violently. “Enough of that. You know his plan. You saw her take him. Tell me what you know now or I’ll tell  _ him _ you told us without even being asked.”

Now that is a threat that they both can uniquely appreciate. Eve’s eyes bulge nearly out of their sockets and she lets out a wet, terrified sob into Lena’s palm. “He’ll kill me.” She squeaks, but her eyes are watery in slow understanding and that’s good. “He’ll kill me anyway, you know he will.”

Lena thinks of telling her  _ not if I decide to kill you first  _ but bites her tongue. Instead, she seizes an opportunity. Just like a Luthor. “So he’s alive then. Where did she take him?”

“I don’t know.” Eve’s voice is defeated, so Lena knows it’s the truth this time. “She put his face through most of the office, and then left. I didn’t watch her go, I was too busy hiding. He screamed a lot. I don’t know if he’s still alive, but he was screaming when she took him—“ Eve lets out a sob that would be pitiful if Lena was capable of that at this point. 

But she isn’t. 

“What was he planning? Why did he inject me with the Red K?” Lena gives the gun an extra little push. “Don’t bother lying Eve, I have very little patience left and your cheekbones are  _ fragile _ .” 

“He only told me little bits and pieces!” Eve’s yelp is loud, too loud, but Lena doesn’t care. “You know he wouldn’t tell me everything! You  _ know _ that!”

She  _ does _ know that, but it doesn’t mean Eve’s an innocent lamb. She narrows her eyes and twitches her finger on the grip of the trigger, just slightly. “Patience waning, Eve.”

“He wanted her to kill you. To kill you and be under his control. He called it Operation Heracles. Project Troy for the second stage.”

Lena’s stomach twitches at the reference. As if the Red K in her skin had been poisoned wine, maddening honey mead. “It didn’t work, clearly.”

“No.” Eve croaks. “It did. But not on you.”

“Right.” Lena looks around at the ruined office. A dawning understanding is clenching in her already-tightened gut. “Well, that backfired spectacularly. What did he think making her angry would do?”

“If she was angry like a bull, he said, all we’d need to do would be to offer some kind of salvation, and she’d fall to a spear gladly. He said he’d made this world to be his bullpen.” 

“What salvation—“ Lena blinks. “Wait, what do you mean  _ made this world?” _

“He made it.” Eve’s eyes are steady, even when Lena lowers the gun. “He took advantage of the Crisis. He made this world so that he could bring us all here, and rule it. And he will.”

Lena has to step back and breathe. Her pulse feels like it’s going three hundred miles a minute. “How?”

“I may be able to help with that.”

It’s Brainy, polite and neutral, stepping into the room with his beta energy radiating waves of calm. He holds up the diary in one hand. “But first I suspect you know how to translate these cyphers.”

Lena does, of course, but it’s still an hour and a half of feverish, worried work. She doesn’t speak. She bites her lip and hopes what she’s seeing isn’t true, but knows it must be. 

Lex is smart, and he’s dangerous, but oh, she never figured he would be this  _ foolish.  _

“I can’t believe he managed it.” She murmurs, more to herself than to Brainy, but the beta nods anyway. 

“Truly. It’s not the first time I’ve seen string theory applied this way, but this is certainly the most... inventive.”

“Will one of you explain what you’re talking about before I send for a psychologist?” Alex crabs, through gritted teeth. 

Eve behind her gag, only smiles. It’s vacant and unpleasant. Lena would like to smack it off her face, but she has bigger problems. 

Unfortunately, they all do. 

“We believe we have discovered why Lex Luthor was so willing to collaborate during the events of the Crisis.” Brainy clears his throat unhappily. “It was so he could divert attention away from this massive undertaking.”

“Which is?”

“He transported us into a Multiverse Paradox Dimension.”

Alex blinks solidly. “Explain more. Better words.”

“It’s like...a layer cake of universes. A pocket dimension made of thousands of realities pressed very close together. Tangling.” Lena intertwines and then stretches her fingers so they form a web. “Lex made it, somehow, and we’re here, somehow, but these layers can’t stay apart for long. Eventually it will collapse.”

“When will that happen?” Alex puts her hand down on the overturned desk and leans, somewhat heavily to the side. 

“Soon.” Lena answers, grimly, and Brainy nods. “It’s unstable. Lex must have planned for just enough time to infect Kara, gain control of her, and then pull the plug and return to a universe of his choosing, having successfully altered the timeline.” She gives Alex a direct, intense look. “He’s siphoning enormous power in order to do this. There must be a source somewhere, and a portal, but only Lex will know how to shut it down, or how to direct the portal to a stable universe. We have to find him.”

“How do we know Lex Luthor is alive?” Brainy asks, and two sets of sharp eyes fall on him. “My apologies, again, but if Kara is truly infected by the Red Kryptonite serum…”

“Eve says he was alive when Kara took him. That was only a few hours ago. There’s a chance.” Lena looks at Eve over Alex’s head. “If we find Kara, we find Lex.” 

“Well, that’s easier said than done—“ Alex starts, but then Nia bursts into the room, panting. 

“Kara’s been sighted! She’s at Catco!”

***

Lena insists on going alone. 

Not that there isn’t a fight about it. 

“We don’t know what she’s capable of right now.” Alex says, bluntly rational as usual. “Lena, she’s not herself. She...she could hurt you.”

No one misses the way Eve perks up in her bindings and squirms approvingly at that, but it’s tactfully ignored. 

“We also don’t know what she’s done with Lex. And we need him.” Lena fires back, arms akimbo. “You know we do, Alex.”

“None of that will help if she takes you, too. Or  _ worse _ , decides she wants to hurt you.” 

Frustrated, Lena lifts the hair away from the back of her neck and points to the mark, still dark red and throbbing with her emotions. “I have a better chance of getting through to her than most of you, and you know it.”

“She has a point, Alex.” Nia puts in softly, and throws up her hands when Alex whirls on her. “Hey, I’m just saying. Kara marked her under the Red K influence, she might still be feeling alpha-protective over Lena now.” She gives Lena a nod. “It’s worth a shot if Lena is willing to take the risk.”

“And I  _ am _ .” 

“ _ Don’t you understand? _ ” Alex explodes, sudden and vehement. Lena blinks, slightly taken aback. “I don’t want to see my sister kill you! I don’t want her to hurt anyone! And she might! She’s  _ not herself _ . You’re all acting like it’s  _ Kara _ out there but it’s—“

Alex slumps, energy leaving as quickly as it rose up, and she puts her head in her hands. Lena is alarmed, but comes to a quick understanding: Alex is  _ tired _ . They’re all tired. It’s  _ too much.  _

“Hey.” She offers, softly, and puts her hand on Alex’s arm. Without realizing it, she’s pushing out friendly omega pheromones, entirely without thought. It doesn’t feel like comforting an alpha, though. It feels like comforting a family member. And she’s never done  _ that _ before, so it’s all very new. “I don’t want to die either, for what it’s worth. I’m going to do my best to avoid that.”

That earns her a defeated, soft chuckle. Alex lifts sorry eyes to her own. “She broke my  _ arm _ last time, Lena. And I never thought she would do anything like that. Never.”

Lena feels the guilty weight of knowledge that would break Kara’s heart, and nods, solemn and quiet. “I know.”

Alex’s posture shifts, and her head lifts. “I just don’t want you to get hurt. And I don’t want  _ Kara _ to be the one to hurt you.” 

“I know.” It’s all she can say, but it seems to be working. She gives Alex a shrug and a smile in response, and the alpha finally smiles back. 

“You’re a good Luthor. You know that?”

That makes Lena laugh, startled and genuine, and the mood lightens. Everything feels suddenly clearer and more capable, and Alex is smiling again, which is good. When Alex stands, Nia makes a small noise, and heads turn to her. 

“It’s nothing, just….” The omega nods at Alex. “You reacted to her pheromones.”

Alex shifts, uncomfortably, and Lena feels her cheeks flush. “Listen, I don’t—“

“No, no, not like that.” Nia waves a dismissive hand. “I just mean... _ she _ was able to calm you down. An omega you’re not mated to cooled you down as easily as if you were an alpha in her own family.” She points a clear finger at Lena. “Kara’s mark is clearly working to some degree. That may work in our favor here.”

As if acknowledging Nia’s remarks, Lena feels the low throb at the back of her neck. Her hand covers it, instinctively, but everyone is already looking at her, and she feels her flush deepen. “I—“

“No, Nia’s right.” Alex is contemplative. “Kara claimed you under the Red K, so the influence of the mark is still strong. She may…” Alex shoots Lena a shrug. “She may be more  _ amenable _ to you.”

Lena feels she is probably beet red by now, but she nods, stiffly. “Let’s hope so.”

At her neck, as if in response, the mark throbs and throbs. 

***

It’s 5pm when she arrives at Catco, and the building is deserted. 

The lobby is eerily quiet as she walks in, heels clicking on the marble. The receptionist’s desk is empty, and the lights are off—the windows let in the fading sunset but it’s dim. The hollow song of her heels follows her all the way through the bullpen. There are some desks overturned, and papers scattered, but there’s no blood. Kara’s desk is tilted over, and she kneels to examine the little 1950s toy spaceship she’d given Kara for Christmas two years ago, surrounded by a halo of broken glass. 

She feels the prickle of unease on the back of her neck long before the  _ whoosh  _ lands. 

“Hello Lena.”

Kara’s voice is stilted, not quite right. Almost like there’s a laugh behind it. It’s frightening and off-putting, but still, Lena can feel her body cry out in welcome, tingling at the nearness of her mate. She stands, slowly brushing glass from her skirt, and takes her time in turning around, preparing. 

She wishes she’d prepared a bit more. 

Kara’s face is crawling in red veins. Her eyes are wild storm clouds, bright and terrible, and her skin is glowing. She is  _ beautiful  _ but in the same dangerous way that oil fires are beautiful. Or nuclear cores. There is barely-contained menace behind that lovely, almost-familiar smile. 

She can’t help the sharp intake of breath, or the step back. Broken glass crunches under her heels. Kara seems to revel in her fear, and that’s even  _ worse _ , somehow. The alpha smiles as she presses in closer—the smile of the cat looming over the trapped bird. “Don’t look so shocked. You know what Kryptonite does better than anyone.”

That’s a deeply truthful jibe, and it stings, but Lena tries to ignore it. “Kara. What have you been doing?”

“You know perfectly well.” Kara laughs, showing teeth. “I know you and Alex have been following me around. Don’t worry. I think it’s sweet.”

“We’re worried about you.” Lena can feel one of Kara’s hands curl around her waist and her body welcomes the touch, knees trembling, but fights the urge to sink into Kara’s arms with every ounce of her being. Her back is stiff, if shaking. “Everyone is worried. This is a little out of character, wouldn’t you agree?”

Her arm swings out to indicate the office and Kara laughs, startled and delighted. For a second it almost feels like Kara,  _ her _ Kara once more, and then that red wall slams shut over those blue eyes. “Maybe you don’t know my character as well as you think.”

“I think I know you pretty well.” Lena shoots back, refusing to be cowed by the closeness of Kara’s body, the heat of her touch. “I’m your mate now, remember?”

“I do.” Kara’s fingers slide up to the back of her neck, and Lena can’t help the soft moan that rolls out of her, nor the flutter of her lashes. “Turn around. Let me see it.”

Lena obliges, knees wobbling, and Kara moves in behind her with a predator’s grace. It’s so smooth, so natural that Lena realizes Kara’s coltish awkwardness must’ve always been an act. Perhaps to help humans feel at ease around her. Less put off by alien perfection. But the way she moves...she’s clearly no clumsy oaf. And Lena realizes— _ maybe I don’t know her as well as I said.  _

But by then it’s too late. 

“There it is.” Kara’s breath is warm on her neck, and it makes Lena shudder visibly. “I knew it wouldn’t fade. I always knew you’d be mine.”

“It might fade.” Lena argues, even as her knees press futilely together. “You didn’t even  _ ask _ me before doing it. I could decide I don’t appreciate that.”

“But you won’t.” Kara whispers in her ear, and nips at the lobe, raising every hair on the back of her neck. She bites her lip to stop from whimpering. 

“I know you too, Lena. We dance around it, you snip at me, I snip at you, and we pretend like we’re not going to end up together.” Kara’s lips find the join of her neck and shoulder and her teeth scrape lightly. “But we both know what you want. What you’ve  _ always _ wanted.” 

Kara’s hot breath is on her jaw, and Lena’s tilting her head to allow it, helpless, biting her lip so hard she tastes blood. When Kara licks at her pulse, she jolts, shuddering like a live wire.

“I’m just the only one alpha enough to give it to you.”

It’s  _ wrong _ . It’s wrong and absolutely  _ not _ how she wants to be talked to, but she twists in Kara’s arms anyway and slams their mouths together. Her hands fly up to cup Kara’s cheeks and they’re burning hot on her palms but she can’t break away—won’t. 

It feels wickedly good to welcome Kara’s tongue back into her mouth.  _ Wrong _ but so, so  _ good _ . 

“You don’t know anything about me.” She tells Kara when they break for air, but then pulls the alpha by her hair back into it again. 

Kara backs her into a wall with super speed, and the impact makes her head connect with a painful  _ thud  _ which wakes her back up again at the sudden click in her jaw. Kara— _ her _ Kara—would never be this rough with her fragile human body, and while that thought is definitely enticing….it’s still  _ dangerous _ , and makes her think of the weak way Alex had said  _ she broke my arm, Lena.  _

“Where’s Lex?” She pushes at Kara’s shoulder, no more effective than a butterfly slamming into a concrete wall, but it gives her the barest feeling of resuming control. “I know he’s not dead. Where are you hiding him and why? For what purpose?”

Kara grins at her. Lipstick is smeared over half of her mouth and her pupils are blackened, like a shark’s. “I don’t want to spoil my wedding present,  _ dear _ . You’ll find out soon enough.”

“Kara. We need him alive. He  _ made _ this universe.” Lena puts her hands on Kara’s shoulders, palms flat now. “It’s not stable. We need him to get us all the hell back out of here before it collapses.”

“I know.” Kara tells her, simply, smile as broad as ever, and she laughs at Lena’s shock. “Lena, you’re very smart, but I’ve studied sciences on planets whose names you will never even learn. I know what your brother did. I don’t want him to  _ undo _ it. I want him to fix it so I can stay here with you as my bride. Forever.”

“But you can’t!” Lena is shocked both by the verbal slap on her pithy PhDs, and the alpha’s stated desire, and she’s honestly not sure which is worse. “You know how allocation of energy works. If we stay, we could end up collapsing all or part of this universe. We could kill  _ thousands _ of people.”

“Millions.” Kara corrects her, almost lovingly, and Lena feels her heart clench. 

“That’s not you.” She says, immediately. Her heart is pounding in her ears but she shakes it away. “You can’t convince me that you’ve always wanted this. Not like this, Kara.”

Kara’s smile fades. Not much, but just a hint. Just  _ enough _ . “This is the only way, Lena. If we go back to our universe and undo this, there’s a chance we won’t remember what happens here.” Her eyes darken again. “You and I will go back to the endless dance and I won’t be your mate anymore and I don’t want that.”

“There’s a chance that it won’t happen, though. You said it’s a  _ chance _ .” Lena curls her hand around her mate’s cheek, too warm to the touch, and brings her closer. “Kara, we can try again. We can find each other again. I know we can.”

Kara is stubbornly shaking her head. Lena can’t be certain, but for a split second it looks as if the red veins are receding. But when she blinks, they’re back again and it could have easily been something she imagined. Or hoped. 

“No. I won’t take that chance. I  _ like _ being in control here. I don’t have to hide here, and I have you.” Her arms slam palm first into the wall on either side of Lena’s head. “I like having you. Like this.” She presses her lower body closer and Lena can feel that she’s hard, outlined against the suit. “You don’t know what I’d do to keep this exactly as it is.”

Lena wants to argue, or at least she really means to—but then Kara’s lips are traveling back up her neck again and her hands are pressed to Kara’s chest instead of pushing her away. She can feel how urgent Kara is to ignore the truth of what she’s said, and she closes her eyes, willing to let it slide for now. It feels too good to deny her, anyway, and if they’re all going to die in a collapsing universe, at least it’s one in which Kara’s lips know  _ exactly _ where to suck and bite to get her as wet as possible. 

“Kara.” She murmurs, pulling at messy blonde hair until lips are wet against her mouth. “Come back to me. Please.”

And then they’re kissing again and there’s no more talk left in her—just  _ want _ . 

It gets intense too quickly. The pace between them feels frenzied. Kara’s fingers pop open the buttons of her shirt and she lets it happen, pulling it away. She pulls at the suit, and Kara shakes her wrist, almost impatiently, until it falls away and there’s bare skin pressing against bare skin. Kara’s hair falling her face, in her mouth, as Kara hikes her skirt up, fingers slipping between Lena’s thighs, other hand cupping her face. 

It’s hot and dirty and messy right away, tearing her skirt as they both push it down her thighs. Kara’s hands press hers into the wall, and her lips are traveling up Lena’s neck, making Lena almost want to laugh at the rising wave of tension in her belly. She turns willingly at Kara’s insistent hands, and lets the alpha press her face to the wall, gripping at her wrists. She can feel the blunt head of Kara’s cock, wet with her spit, pressing into the back of her thigh, and then again between them, and she parts her legs, slapping her palms into the wall in a mixture of anticipation and frustrated delight. She  _ knows _ she shouldn’t be doing this.  _ Knows _ it. 

But she lets it happen. 

Kara’s hand is fisting in her hair, turning her neck to the side so she can bite at it and suckle the mark when she thrusts inside, rough and quick. Lena cries out, hips jerking at the initial lunge. It’s bigger than she remembers and she’s wet but perhaps not wet enough. There’s no foreplay, just Kara’s breath at her neck and her hand tight at the base of her skull and she moans, body going helplessly slack in primitive acknowledgement of her lack of control. It shouldn’t feel this good. But it does. 

“That’s it. Take it.  _ Take _ it.” Kara’s breath is sharp and her words as vicious as the pace of her hips. Her cock twitches inside of Lena, and she nudges at the mark with her lips. 

Lena can’t answer except with little breathy noises, hands scrabbling against the concrete. Beside them, a bulletin board comes crashing to the ground, and then, moments later, a flatscreen. The wanton destruction should alarm her, but it doesn’t. 

It makes her wetter. 

It’s sordid and dirty and she cries out, lips skidding red against the drywall, a red smear of her sins as Kara thrusts into her, jarring their bodies. The alpha’s mouth is on her neck, at the mark, and her whispering words are such sweet poison that Lena is drinking it all without pausing for air. 

“You’re mine, always have been. From the moment I saw you. Could’ve bent you over in front of Kal and fucked you there.” Hot breath at the base of her neck, and the prickling over her throat, under her jaw. “You would’ve let me, too. I  _ smelled _ you, Lena.” 

Lena’s going to come  _ hard.  _ Any moment now. She feels it tense in her belly and tight behind her ears and she digs her fingernails against the wall, breath in harsh pants. “God,  _ fuck _ me, just fuck me.”

“I will.” Kara promises, laughing wickedly while her hips increase, driving a shrieking wail from Lena’s throat. “I’ll give you what you need.” 

“Come in me.” Lena pants, begging without begging, body arched against the wall, every nerve ending blazing with heat. “ _ Breed me.” _

That definitely startles Kara out of her rhythm for a split second, but only a split second. She lurches forward against Lena’s back, hips hammering as her breath spills out in a heady rush, and Lena cries out in victory before her orgasm slams her vocal chords shut with a tight whine. Every inch of her is spasming and releasing like an endless wave, detonating with overwhelming sensation, and only the sound of Kara’s sudden, intimate moan lets her know that the alpha is releasing inside her, as promised. 

For a moment, blissful and sweet, she can feel Kara lean her head against her back, and her breath is so soft. “God.” Lena lets out. “I missed you.”

But that was the wrong thing to say, apparently. Kara stiffens behind her and slips out, ignoring the slick rush that follows her softening cock. It spills onto the cold floor between Lena’s knees, and that is the end of the spell between them. 

“Don’t worry.” Kara tells her, shaking her wrist again as the suit glides back onto her gloriously naked form. Her presence is once again somehow towering, made worse by the ruined state of Lena’s clothes and her vulnerable, post-fucked state. “Soon you won’t have to miss me ever again.”

“Kara—-“ Lena starts, but then shakes her head. She’s tired, and sore, and the pleasant orgasm rush has faded into sadness so quickly that it hurts. 

“What is it?” Kara tilts her head curiously, like a dog, but her eyes are still narrowed, slitted with red. 

“Nothing. Just….” Lena steps closer, ignoring her nakedness, and cups the alpha’s red face one more time. Tenderly. As lovingly as she can. “Come back to me, okay? Promise you’ll come back.”

“I—“ Kara looks at her palm as if it’s a foreign object, and again—Lena sees it clearer this time, but only for a split second as the veins recede. “I will.”

And then she rips away and is gone, into the darkening night.

***


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been a crazy fun ride, my dudes, especially as the world went insane over the past few months. Writing this story has kept me pretty stable, and now I’m gonna need a new project to get invested in, damn it. But oh well! 
> 
> We’re at the end, and I hope it’s a happy enough one for all of you who commented such amazing, inspiring, funny and kind words. I thank you all. Here’s to the next one.

After Kara leaves, there’s a hollowness inside of Lena that correlates to the soreness between her legs. 

The antidote didn’t work. Or if it did, Kara was able to override the soothing hormones seeping into her skin from Lena’s touch. She tries her best to not let it feel like an abandonment, but...hearts are unruly creatures. Her clothes look like she’s fucked a hurricane and Kara’s cum is slowly clotting at the crotch of her panties and there’s nothing romantic about the way this feels. There is a dark, hopeless part of her that wonders if this is the last time Kara will be with her as her mate, one way or another, and it’s hard to shake off. 

_ There’s a chance...a chance we won’t remember… _

Lena is a scientist—she can’t deny the odds are against them. No matter what she’d told Kara, they could easily walk back into a ‘reset’. Perhaps even a universe where they hadn’t yet met. Or a universe where they would never meet at all. 

And in this universe...they’re married. Mated. Owners of a very swanky midtown apartment. It’s all so appealing that Lena sees immediately why Kara is so convinced. She even feels it too. 

Kara’s red eyes had seemed so desperate.  _ ‘You don’t know what I’d do to keep this exactly like this.’  _

Lena can’t say she doesn’t feel the same desperation. She feels the same magnetic pull that Kara does. The same desire to wrap herself up in Kara as if they were the only two people in the world. 

But if she does that, the world will collapse around them. 

The streets are deserted as she walks slowly back to her car, tightening her jacket around the loosened buttons of her shirt. Half of downtown is evacuated, and the few people scurry about like rats, eyes furtively on the sky. It makes Lena’s stomach clench to see how they fear Kara. Like she’s exactly what Lex warned about. 

It’s not good news when she gets back to the lab, either. 

Brainy shakes his head over the microscope again. “Still no change. We haven’t got an antidote...just a very good sedative.”

“It’s the best option we have so far.” Alex argues, hands in the air. “We load the sedative into a gun, tranq her, grab Lex, and force him to activate the portal before she wakes. We leave Eve and Lex here, and bam, problem  _ solved _ .”

“We can’t leave anyone behind.” Brainy counters, implacable as always. “All of the original people that Lex Luthor pulled into this pocket dimension at the time of its creation must be there at the exiting, or the portal will collapse around us.”

“What about the other people in this world?” Nia asked, worriedly, and Alex and Lena both nod. “What will happen to them?”

“They will merge back into the universes that they originated from without any issue. It’s only the inhabitants of the collapsed Earth-38 who jumped into this pocket dimension that don’t belong in the natural order.” 

“That means….us, J’onn, Lex, Eve, and Kara?” Nia counts on her fingers as Alex nods at her. “Anyone else?”

“Andrea Rojas.” Lena speaks up, as heads turn to her. “And her….husband, Russel. She made a deal with Lex. I can call her, see if I can get her here.”

“Do that.” Alex nods at her, and Lena returns it. “Okay, so that makes ten. But did Lex and Eve bring anyone else through?”

“We won’t know without interrogating Lex Luthor.” Brainy replies. 

“And it’s entirely possible he’ll lie just to spite us all.” Lena puts in, arms tightly crossed. Her chest feels wounded and tight. She rubs her temple, peevishly. “Lex is always going to be a thorn in any plan.”

“Well, we do have Eve,” Nia points out. All eyes turn toward the blonde—still bound and gagged on her office chair. Eve’s eyes go wide and she starts to struggle again, albeit futilely. “Maybe she knows.”

“It’s possible.” Alex tilts her head, considering, before turning to Lena. “What do you think?”

“She knows.” Lena answers, darkly. Her eyes haven’t left Eve’s frightened-rabbit expression, and as the omega struggles again, she narrows them. “Give me five minutes alone with her.”

***

The scent of Lena is on Kara’s hands and her mouth and she feels…

Conflicted. 

She closes her eyes, tilts her head into the wind. There’s a lot of wind, where she is. The very top of National City’s communications tower is a very thin spire, barely big enough for two people. Well, one person standing, and one person laying. 

Lex isn’t chained, but there’s nowhere for him to go. Nowhere but down, and down is very far away. They’re at least 450ft in the air right now. Lex is still asleep, or perhaps just too stunned to move, and Kara feels agitated, irritable about that. She wants him awake so she can savor his fear. See the bulge in his eyes when he realizes he’s trapped. It had seemed like such a delightful thing earlier today. 

If only she could stop thinking about how sad Lena’s eyes were. How she had said  _ come back to me. _ As if Kara was lost. 

She shakes her head, feeling the buzzing of anxiety. It’s unwelcome. Kara  _ Danvers _ feels anxiety. Little, meek, pleasant Kara Danvers who suffers boners in silence and adjusts her glasses when she’s nervous—which is always. Kara Danvers who let Lena slip from her grasp without a word and lets Lex Luthor play stupid male games with her bodily autonomy. 

But she’s all Kara  _ Zor-El  _ now, and she shouldn’t be nervous. What has a god to fear from a sandbox world? What are humans but ants pretending they matter?

_ Lena isn’t an ant.  _

There it is again. The buzz. She rolls her head on her shoulders, grits her teeth. She doesn’t like it. It’s unfair. This world is made for  _ her _ . There shouldn’t be anything she can’t control. 

_ Including Lena? _

That voice in her head won’t be silenced. She’s getting sick of it, but it just keeps getting louder. The voice sounds like Sensible Kara Danvers, and she’s  _ sick _ of that. So sick. She doesn’t want to think about what Kara Danvers wants. Kara Danvers doesn’t exist in this universe. There’s no reason for her to. No reason to deny herself the pleasure of mating Lena, no reason for her to feel guilt about her lusts, or torture herself over the  _ whys _ and the  _ why nots _ . Kara Danvers and her human life  _ had  _ been the reason she held back. But Kara Danvers is no more. 

She thought it would feel better. Maybe that’s why. It only felt good for a moment, to frighten everyone at Catco and laser down LuthorCorp. She expected it to feel good, to feel like shedding old skin. But it feels…. _ wrong _ . 

The way Lena looked at her….that was all wrong, too. 

A little fear was fine. That was respectful. It turned her on, to see Lena acknowledge her power and strength, and made her want to show the omega just how strong she could be. Make her jump a little. Make her pulse race in that appealing, scared-rabbit thump-thump. 

But Lena just seemed afraid in a different way. Afraid of what Kara was  _ becoming _ , not what she already  _ was _ . And that made her….sad. 

Kara doesn’t like that. 

This world is supposed to be her own. Her conquering victory. Taking Lex’s twisted plan and making it into something better. A world where she doesn’t have to hide who she is. Or who she loves. There would be peace at last in a world like that. No more catastrophes. No more pretending to play nice. She has shown her force here—no one will dare challenge her now. 

_ They’re scared.  _

Well, that was fine. Scared was better than being loved. They could turn on you so fast when they loved you. She knew.  _ Oh _ , how she knew. 

_ They used to love you, though. The little girl. The coffee shop. Mira-Marie Edgarport.  _

She shakes her head, bullish. That doesn’t matter. One little girl doesn’t matter. She is a God here. She can defend thousands of little girls. 

_ Not if they’re scared of you.  _

Well, they can learn to love her again. She’ll show them. Show them all. She’s the only thing standing between this world and it’s melting reformation back into the void, so they  _ should  _ love her. It’s her right. 

_ Just like it’s your right to claim Lena? _

That makes her cold between the shoulder blades and she tenses, irritably. Claiming Lena had  _ felt _ right. But…

_ She didn’t ask for it.  _

She puts her hands over her ears, as if she can stop the voice inside, but the chill spreads from between her shoulders down her spine, like a glacial stream. She can’t block it out. And sometimes she wonders which voice is  _ truly _ her own. 

It’s getting harder to tell. 

The overwhelming feelings are too much. She needs to focus on the basics. The simplest drive inside of her right now. 

Revenge. 

Kara looks down at the man crumpled at her feet, ribs slowly rising with his unconscious breath. She narrows her gaze. Lex is the cause of all of this. This…. _ confusion _ . This hurt. He has manipulated Lena, made her afraid. Lena thinks the Red K will allow Lex to control Kara, when it’s the other way around. Kara has to prove that’s not the case. She has to show her mate that she is still a strong alpha, and that Lena has nothing to fear. 

Once he’s gone, Lena will understand. Things will be clear. They will mate properly, and Lena will be content, safe with her mate’s mark fully reciprocated and her belly rounded with the new generation of Kryptonians. Alex will understand too, when the threat is gone. 

Lex is the problem. 

Her mind thusly made up, Kara toes the alpha with her boot, roughly. When he groans, she does it again, harder. The knowledge that she could crack his ribs open and step on his heart makes her blood rush faster, her pulse stronger. Hair rises on the back of her neck and her inner alpha roars with triumph when Lex opens his eyes, blinking. 

“Good. You’re awake. You’re a scientist, right Lex? Let’s see what you know about gravity.”

***

“Everything about that was against DEO policy and about six different Pentagon conventions on cruelty to prisoners.” Alex informs her, as Lena exits the conference room where they’ve left Eve tied. “But all I want to know is—did you find out who we need to get?”

“It’s just the ten. Andrea’s the only one.” Lena breezes past the alpha, taking her jacket from Alex’s outstretched hands. “Thank you.”

“Are you sure?” Alex’s nose wrinkles and she leans in to look at Eve—now somewhat more bruised, but mostly intact. “How are you sure she isn’t lying?”

“I’m sure.” Lena tells her, simply. 

Alex shrugs. “Well, great. Andrea texted you while you were in there. Says she’s on her way with her husband. All we need is Lex.”

“And Kara.” 

“Easier said than done.” Alex snorts. “Do you have any idea where she could be?”

“None, really.” Lena rolls her shoulders, and then stops, considering. “Except….maybe somewhere high up?”

The alpha tilts her head to one side, giving Lena a patented Danvers Look. “What makes you say that, Detective Luthor?”

“Nothing. It’s just—“ She’s blushing, she knows, but she can’t help it. “When I….got close to her….I could see that her hair was all disheveled, like she’d been in the wind. And her scent was—-“ She swallows at Alex’s knowing smirk. “—different.”

“So you got close enough to smell her, huh?” Alex raises a dark eyebrow and Lena feels like crawling into an air vent. “Fantastic. Maybe you can get close enough to tranq her, once we find her.”

“No, Alex. I don’t know if I can—“ Lena stops.  _ Trust myself around her.  _

“Lena.” Alex locks eyes with her, patient and insistent. “Brainy says we’re running out of time here.”

“I know.” Lena doesn’t want to look at her, but she knows the ticking clock as well as any of them. “We’ve got two, maybe three hours at the most.”

“And you know I wouldn’t ask you to betray my sister under any  _ normal _ circumstances.” Alex continues on, doggedly. “But these aren’t normal circumstances. And Kara is under a very seductive inner influence right now.”

Lena winces, knowing exactly how  _ seductive _ that influence can be. But she gives Alex the courtesy of a stiff nod, anyway. The alpha is right. It can’t be helped. “I’ll...I’ll try.”

“Good.” Alex gives her a rough clap on the back that nearly knocks her over. “Uh, sorry. Anyway, I’ll go get the stuff ready for the portal.”

And with that, she’s off, heading down the corridor back to Lena’s lab. 

Lena’s going to head there herself, but Brainy pops out of seemingly nowhere in the hallway, hands folded at his waist. He gives her a short, stiff nod. “Lena. I have some...information I’d like to share with you. Will you come with me?” 

Lena doesn’t want to. She wants to be alone, to process her thoughts, or perhaps busy with a project so she doesn’t have to think. Her mouth presses in a thin line, but Brainy persists, gently. 

“I think this is information that would be—ah—-of great interest to you, Lena. I promise you, I do not intend to waste what little time we have left. Will you come?”

Brainy wouldn’t waste time, that’s true. She nods, and tries to allow him a small, tight smile. “Of course.” 

She follows him into her section of the lab, abandoned by the interns and lead technicians alike, and the beta brings her briskly to her own desk, where the pictures of this universe’s Kara and Lena beam down at her. Lena winces, turning slightly away, but Brainy motions to the pictures. “Do you notice something here?”

“I noticed them as soon as I came back to myself in this universe. Well, practically.” Lena forces herself to look at the smiling eyes of the nearest double version of herself. They’re in an apple orchard, this time. “Kind of hard to miss.”

“There is something you’re missing, though. Look at the details.” Brainy presses, insistently. 

Lena frowns. She’s very tired and she thinks briefly that she’d like to tell him to fuck off, but then she follows his pointing finger. In the apple orchard, Kara’s hair is wavy and golden, and she looks so pleased looking with crinkle-eyed affection down at Lena that the mole on her cheek is almost right at eye level—-wait. 

Kara doesn’t have a mole on her cheek. 

Lena must’ve made a tiny noise of understanding, because Brainy nods. “You see? Now look at the others.”

She lets her eyes scan to another photo, this time at what looks like the wedding reception. Kara is smiling hugely again but—no mole. This time there’s a streak of blue in her hair. Lena’s heart jumps when she gets it. Like a puzzle falling into place. “They’re all different! Different Karas I mean.”

Brainy smiles at her, brief and simple as curling his lips slightly upward. Blink and you’d miss it. “You see it. All of these pictures are from different universes.”

“Yes.” Lena’s seeing it everywhere, now that she’s looking, and cursing herself for not seeing it before. “The pocket dimension must have populated with bits and pieces from a hundred or so other universes.” 

“Exactly.” Brainy nods, precisely. 

Lena’s nose wrinkles. “Not to be frank with you, but I expected somewhat more revelatory news, Brainy. We  _ know _ that’s how pocket dimensions work and I—“

Brainy waves a calm hand. “Lena Luthor. You’re still not seeing it. Look at the photographs. Do you see a commonality?”

Lena closes her mouth and looks again, scanning her desk. “There are at least a dozen different Karas here.” 

“I did some digging into your brother’s files.” Brainy explains, placid and patient as ever, but there is a quiet sparkle in his eyes. “It seems he was very frustrated in his initial attempts at securing a universe in which to control Supergirl. It seems he couldn’t find one in which you two were not, in some way, connected.”

“Oh.” The weight of what Brainy is saying lands on her like a heavy stone. “Well, that’s not….” She swallows. “Not entirely indicative of—“

“Apparently, Lex Luthor concluded that there was no other alternative other than to create his own universe, but chose to maintain your connection as a means of controlling Kara. He stopped fighting with the tide of the universe and chose to manipulate it instead.”

“He does that.” Lena says faintly. “But that doesn’t mean that she and I—“

“Lena.” Brainy folds her hands into his cool palms. His eyes are deep and understanding in a way that she has never yet seen. “I am going to suggest to you that perhaps having a little faith in Kara, when it comes down to it, would not be misguided.”

Lena can’t look away. “But Alex said….the tranquilizer…”

“I know what she said.” Brainy says. “And she’s right. But so am I.” He inclines his head at her, and releases her hands. “Just think it over. When the time comes. I think you’ll know what to do.”

But Lena doesn’t know what to do. She’s even more confused than ever, staring back at Brainy, and already her mind is swimming with a thousand questions. She opens her mouth to ask them, when Alex and Nia come thundering back into the room, looking grim and bearing tranquilizer rifles each. 

“She’s been sighted by the DEO camera network. On Fifth and East, by the communications tower. Lena, if you’re coming, we gotta go now.”

“I’m coming.” Lena straightens her shoulders, trying to belly the fact that her belly is tight and cramping. 

“Good,” Alex hands her a pistol loaded with a tranquilizer dart and gives her a tense nod when she hesitates, but takes it. “Brainy, stay here to secure the portal and watch Eve. Keep a look out for Andrea’s arrival.” She shoulders her rifle, looking grim. “Either way, we won’t be long.”

They go, while Brainy watches with solemn eyes. 

***

Kara is easy to spot, but frankly, Lena wishes she wasn’t. 

It’s very uncomfortable to watch. 

Lex is dangling by one ankle while Kara holds him, but every few seconds she will drop him, whistling happily as if without a care in the world, and listen to him scream toward the concrete before she darts down and grabs him again, flying higher each time. Lex appears to have vomited a few times, and Lena can hardly blame him. 

She can’t look away from it. Her brother’s face is purple and for the very first time in his life, Lena can see he feels helpless. His eyes are terrified. Her heart is thumping, both for the boy that he was and for the stupid, reckless, selfish man he became. She doesn’t want to watch him die. 

She doesn’t want to watch Kara kill him. 

“Are you enjoying your lesson, Lex?” Kara calls out, over the wind. The sky is darkening, as if in tune with the apocalyptic mood, and the wind is whipping the trees. But Kara’s voice carries, and they can hear every word as she taunts her prey. “You seem to delight in trying to teach me lessons, Lex, but you’re the one who seems to fail at understanding.” 

She pulls him up effortlessly with one hand so she swing him back and forth, and Lex moans. “You don’t understand that Kryptonians only humor you. Kal favors peace, and preaches against becoming the monsters you say we are. But in our minds, Lex, and in our hearts, we  _ know _ we could end you at any moment.” She leans down and tugs at his collar until he’s hanging by his tie, scrabbling at it. “And you know it too.”

She drops him. 

Lena almost darts forward, but Alex’s arm on her chest holds her back, and she’s grateful. It would give away their position and it’s not time for that yet. Not until it’s safe, that’s what Alex said. But her heart lurches and she almost screams, burying her fist in her mouth. 

Lex does scream, loudly, as he plummets, arms waving wildly, to the ground. Seconds before he hits the pavement, Kara yanks him back by his ankle in a sudden, swift lunge that can’t bode well for his spine. She laughs at his sob of relief. It’s so strange and striking to hear Kara’s  _ laugh _ come from this situation that Lena almost laughs herself. She bites her knuckles instead, and grits her teeth. 

“Does that make you foolish, then? To antagonize us? I’ve always wondered.” Kara’s voice is almost conversational, and she’s dangling Lex close enough to the ground now that Lena could touch Lex’s dangling fingers, if she ran out and reached for them. But she doesn’t. She’s transfixed by the eerie confidence of Kara’s taunting. The strange, simple truth of it.

“I always wanted to know  _ why _ , if you feared and hated us so much, you would risk us turning our power on you.” Kara smiles down at Lex. A frightening rictus of her normal bright smile. “Because it always seemed extremely inevitable to me. And maybe one day you’d learn. But you didn’t, did you Lex?”

Lex moans in her grip and she shakes him, almost merrily. “You tried to kill Kal and he put you down, countless times. You tried to kill me, and I put you down, many times.” She leans down to him, tilting her head and grinning wide, like a shark. “You tried to make me kill your sister, but instead I made her my  _ mate _ . I fucked her so well she’s probably carrying my seed right now. Have you  _ learned _ yet?”

Lena blushes, her throat tightening, as behind her Alex shifts and Nia coughs, awkwardly.  _ Thanks Kara. Say it louder, for the folks in the back.  _ The embarrassment shifts something in her, though, something almost transfixed by the display, and sets it loose. She narrows her eyes, and steps away from behind the dumpster that is their meager ‘cover’, cupping her hands to her mouth. 

“That’s  _ enough _ . Kara, how dare you?”

“Are you  _ insane?” _ Alex hisses, tugging on her arm frantically, while Nia cups her hands over her mouth, looking torn between terror and hysterical laughter. “She’ll  _ obliterate you.  _ Get back here!”

“No, Alex.” Lena wrenches away. “We don’t have time for this grandstanding.” Alex lets her go, as if shocked by her nerve, and Lena steps out into the street, in full view of Kara, hands on her hips. 

“If I’m your mate, you better come here and answer to why you’re speaking vulgarities about me in the street.” 

For a moment, just a  _ moment— _ Lena sees it. The flash of Guilty Kara.  _ Her _ Kara. The softening of the eyes, the return of blue to her irises, instead of red. And then it’s gone and Kara gives her patient, measured smile that she  _ hates.  _ “Lena, sweetheart—“

“You  _ never _ call me sweetheart and you’d  _ never _ disrespect me like this. You’re being extraordinarily dumb.” Lena folds her arms, ignoring Alex’s moan of defeat and Nia’s scandalized gasp. “Kara Zor-El, you put him down and come here this  _ instant _ .” 

Kara eyes her. Looks at Lex. And then looks at her again. “I...can’t put him down. He’ll escape.” She looks almost absurdly pleased with herself to have come up with that, and Lena narrows her eyes. 

“Then break his ankle or something.” Lena waves a hand, irritated, even as Nia lets out a shocked ‘oh my  _ god’ _ behind her back. “We don’t have time for this.”

“Jesus Christ.” Alex mutters, just to the left of her. 

“Lena, you  _ b— _ ” Lex screams, but it’s too late. 

His ankle breaks like a twig and he shrieks, his eyes rolling white, before he slumps into a faint. Kara drops him about three feet onto the ground, and he goes face first, which looks very uncomfortable, but he doesn’t wake from the faint. Alex rushes forward and drags him back, but Kara remains hovering, frowning at Lena. 

“I thought you’d be pleased. He’s tormented you for so long. You  _ shot him _ .”

“That doesn’t mean I want to watch  _ you  _ kill him.” Lena tugs on the hem of Kara’s tattered, charred cape, fluttering just within her reach. “Kara, you’re better than this, you know it. And I know it.”

“No. I’m not.” Kara’s brow is knotted when she looks down at Lena’s fingers curled in her cape. “I  _ always _ wanted to do that. And  _ more _ . I am the monster he says I am, Lena. I  _ wanted _ him to fear me.”

“You’re not a monster.” Lena tugs, asking politely, and Kara drops down a bit, hovering just above her. “Not unless you give in and smash him on the pavement. Not unless you let the idea of this world  _ change _ you.” 

“We could be happy here. We could forget.” Kara says, quietly, but it’s almost pleading. 

Lena is shaking her head. “No. Not here. But,” she pulls on Kara’s fingers until they’re tangled with her own, “I believe we can find each other in any universe, Kara. I believe we could be happy anywhere.”

“It’s too risky.” Kara argues, but her eyes are locked on Lena’s and they’re  _ blue _ , sweet blue. “I can’t—-I won’t lose you. What if we wake up there and we don’t know each other? Or, worse, we  _ hate _ each other? What then?”

“We’ll find a way.” Lena pulls Kara’s fingers to her heart. The alpha is leaning down, drifting towards her lips, helpless as lost lamb with all those red veins slowly receding, and Lena can feel her heart beating hard but tries not to show how she’s shaking. “You have to believe we’ll find a way back to each other, Kara. Because we always will. We always will.”

“How are you so sure?” Kara’s feet are only inches off the ground, now, and Lena rises up on tip toes to cup her face. 

“Because I love you.” She says, simply, and kisses her mate with all the hope her battered soul can muster. 

And, thankfully, for once in her life, her love seems to be enough. 

Kara touches back to the ground, and her hands come up to press Lena closer to her body. Her mouth is hot and her breath is tangy, like she’s bit her lip hard enough to bleed, but Lena rises to the kiss anyway, wanting to kiss the breath out of Kara—even if it’s not possible. The wind is kicking up hard behind them, swirling with dust eddies and little bits of trash, and the sky is purple-black and cracking open with lightning, 

But there’s no place Lena would rather be, in that moment. In that kiss. 

“I love you, too.” Kara whispers into her ear, when she breaks apart to kiss against the alpha’s neck. “Always have. Always will.”

It’s Kara’s voice.  _ Her _ Kara. Lena tilts her face back to look and almost sobs in relief when she sees bright blue eyes with only the tiniest hint of red. The veins have snaked back to the edges of her face, and her smile is tentative, slow.  _ Kara’s _ smile. 

She wants to kiss it right off Kara’s face, but Alex interjects, yelling. “Lena? Are you good over there?”

“Yes.” Lena calls back, looking into Kara’s eyes as she strokes the alpha’s face, feeling the fine peach fuzz along her jaw. 

“Well, it looks like about to be in a tornado, so we should probably  _ get the hell out of here?” _

“Yes.” Kara calls back, and Lena can see Alex’s tense face lift for an instant when she sees her face. 

They go. 

Lex is unconscious, but as it turns out, all Lena needed was the damn biometric sensor. Her brother’s mechanics are always tied to his DNA—she should have known. But it’s no matter, they’ve got it now. She presses his limp hand to it and the portal spins to life, humming wildly. Brainy moves in on the other side, and together they start the process of setting the portal to auto-generate a path back to their world. It will take some time. 

Kara is standing awkwardly, still buzzing with a similar kind of energy to the portal, shifting from foot to foot. Alex and Nia are staring at her from the opposite side of the room, arms crossed. Their body language is wary, but not unfriendly. The blonde alpha looks sheepish, but also wary. The red veins haven’t fully receded from her hairline yet. Lena wonders, with a sharp pang, if they ever will, even in a new world. 

She doesn’t know what will happen. Her heart is thumping in her chest.  _ I don’t want to lose you. Can’t lose you. Not now, after I...after I found out how much I  _ **_needed_ ** _ to find you.  _

“Come with me.” 

It’s not really a conscious decision, leading Kara away by her hand. The alpha goes with her, docile as a lamb, but she looks over her shoulder at her sister and her friend, as if checking that they approve. Alex gives a tight nod, and Kara’s tense palm relaxes in Lena’s grip. 

There’s not many places to be private, now that the storm is fully kicking up and the universe is falling apart, but Lena finds a broom closet and shuts them into it, pulling the light cord as a can of WD-40 rolls away from her heels. Kara’s hulking presence fills the closet, but awkwardly, as if the alpha doesn’t know how to stand in her own skin anymore. Lena can see she’s torn, and knows this is just the beginning. The Red K has been in her system so long now that it might always linger. But Kara is strong, and noble, and her heart is good. Those things last longer than malice and the desire for revenge. Lena knows that to be personally true. 

“Do you remember when I told you that you were my hero? Not Supergirl, but you. Just the one friend I had—Kara Danvers?”

The eyes that look down into hers are smoky blue-grey. “Yes.”

“I think I knew I loved you then.” Lena says. She curls one hand into Kara’s suit, and the other into her hair. “I just didn’t know how to say it to you. I’ve never known how to tell you when I feel things. Things I can’t control.”

“I know.” Kara says, low and soft, and her lips graze the side of Lena’s wrist. 

“And I can’t control you. At all.” Lena laughs. She’s a little watery-eyed, but it’s a good laugh. Kara smiles with her, lips spreading almost as wide as her normal smile. Almost. “So of course you scare me.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t want to scare you.” Kara tells her, quiet and earnest. Lena has to laugh again, at that. 

“You’ll always scare me. But some things are worth the fear.” She brings their foreheads together. “I was scared to share space with you. Pretend to be your wife. I was scared at how much I wanted that to be  _ real _ .”

“I want it too, Lena.” Kara’s voice is cracking. “I wanted it so bad.”

“Shh.” Lena kisses her jaw, lips tracing slowly. 

“We could still—“

“No. No, darling. Not this way.”

“I know.” Kara sighs against her, shaking a little. The alpha’s sun-kissed skin feels so  _ warm _ and Lena closes her eyes against the urge to cry. She wants to feel this for just a moment longer. “But maybe….in another life?”

“In another life, yes.” They share a quiet, desperate laugh. Lena doesn’t know when she started clinging to Kara’s suit for dear life, but she can’t quite force herself to stop. “For now…”

“How long do we have until the portal is done and ready?” Kara asks her, lips moving against her throat. Lena closes her eyes. 

_ Twenty minutes, maybe less. I should be out there. I shouldn’t— _

She shakes her head. “Enough time.” 

Lena pulls Kara’s mouth to her lips and shuts her brain to the aching precipice of loss. There is no more thinking. She just wants to feel. 

They make love in the cramped broom closet like quiet, frantic teenagers. Every movement is fraught with something more, something like a promise. Kara’s fingers shake when they pull at Lena’s buttons, but her lips are sure. Lena leans into the kiss and opens herself for Kara, clinging fiercely to the hope that this will not be the last time—cannot be the last time. 

When Kara enters her, it’s rough and urgent, enough to make her stifle a cry into the alpha’s shoulder. Her leg is hitched up over Kara’s hip, and the alpha pulls her closer, hands heavy and grabbing at her body. It feels desperate. It feels like passing a love letter, back and forth, between their bodies, to carry with them through to new universes. 

Kara bites at her neck, her hair, her lips. Lena is caught up in the haphazard frenzy of her thrusts, the panting that is almost like crying. She tilts her head back to let Kara kiss over and over on the mark on her neck, and closes her eyes to the searing pleasure of it dancing in her skin. The reminder that she is Kara’s...even if only in this universe. 

When Kara comes, shaking and stifling her cry into Lena’s neck, Lena comes with her, almost in sympathy. Her cunt pulses around the alpha’s cock, which has formed a small knot at the base, as if trying to join them one last time, and it’s bittersweet to feel the rocking and twitching of it inside her body. 

Behind closed lashes, Lena pleads with whatever gods may be listening.  _ Let me have this memory. Just this one.  _

They re-dress in silence, helping each other to clean up. Kara buttons her shirt back up, and kisses her neck, almost like a prayer to the mark there. Lena shivers, and touches her face. 

“Believe in this.” She says, low enough that only Kara can hear her. 

When they go back, things have progressed quicker than expected, but no one seems to have batted an eye at their disappearance. Alex looks at Lena with a kind of sadness, and smiles, like she knows. Lena smiles back. She hopes that she won’t forget how kind Alex has been, even if she forgets everything else. Kara is staring straight into the portal, not looking at anyone, and she squeezes the alpha’s hand.  _ You’re going to be alright. They will help you. Even if you don’t believe you deserve it.  _

The portal is crackling with energy and Brainy has to yell over it. “Andrea and her husband are already through. J’onn and Eve are next.”

J'onn is holding Eve by one arm, and she’s finally free of her bonds, but for the ones on her hands. She doesn’t look too happy about the way Lex looks crumpled on the floor, and keeps staring back at him longingly. J’onn grips onto Eve’s arm tighter, and gives everyone a smile and a nod, before stepping to the portal. “See you all on the other side, hopefully.”

“Hopefully.” Kara says faintly, but he’s already gone. She looks down at Lena and her face is ashen, drained, but resigned. Lena wants to assure her again, but Brainy interrupts.

“Okay, Alex and Lex need to go next.” 

“Why can’t we all go together?” Nia asks.

Brainy waves his hands impatiently. “We go two at a time to keep the energy stream consistent without overloading, but we’re now  _ rapidly _ running out of time, so we need to go as fast as we can. Come on, now.”

Alex lugs Lex’s crumpled, unconscious body to the portal, and looks at Kara with a hopeful smile. “See you on the other side, sis. I hope?”

“Yeah.” Kara says softly, and Alex nods, as if that’s enough, for now. 

Then she’s gone, with Lex, the light cracking blue and white behind them. 

“Nia, you and I next.” Brainy holds out his arm and Nia goes to him, but he casts a desperate look back at Lena. “Please, don’t delay after us. We only have minutes now.”

“See you—“ Nia starts to wave, but then Brainy pulls her forward and they’re gone. 

Now it’s just Kara and her, standing on the precipice of the end of the world, holding hands. She looks up at Kara’s strange face—half Red K, half sweet, gentle Kara. She hopes there’s enough of both to balance. 

“We have to go, darling.”

“I know, but—wait.” Kara holds her back, eyes dark with fear. “How will we find each other again? You said we would have to believe, but…. _ how _ ?”

“You’ll see it in my eyes.” Lena answers, knowing without really understanding where the knowledge comes from that it’s the right answer. “You’ll know.”

“Okay.” Kara swallows. She pulls Lena closer, and they step toward the portal. “One last kiss?”

“Always.” Lena tells her. 

As their lips brush, she hears the crackling, but feels nothing. She closes her eyes, and leans into the kiss, melting into Kara and not knowing or caring where they would end up. 

It’s up to the universe to decide. 

***

Kara can feel the sun before she even wakes. 

Her eyes open to familiarity—the DEO recovery room. Monitors beeping. An uncomfortable Kryptonite needle in her arm. But the sun is shining through the window. And Alex is sitting on the chair by the bed, looking curiously at her. 

“You’re awake. How do you feel?”

“I’m alive.” Kara croaks, sitting half-upright on one elbow. “How long was I out?”

“A day. What do you remember?” Alex is looking at her critically. 

Kara opens her mouth to respond. She doesn’t quite know how to answer that question. She’s not sure she wants to. 

She remembers the Red K, but it’s like a dream. It’s all in flashes. Blurs. The feelings she had. The darkness. The way it felt like something that had always been inside her, all along,  _ waiting _ . 

The way Lena looked so sad, and scared, when she touched her. The way Alex flinched away from her presence in the portal room. The way everyone screamed and ran from her when she lasered her way through Catco. 

Tears are starting to come to her eyes. “A lot. Alex, I am so, so  _ sorry _ .”

“Hey.” Alex’s hand reaches for hers on the bed and gives her the patented Danvers Squeeze. Three strong tugs in a row.  _ I-Love-You.  _ Kara looks down at her hand through the film of tears and smiles. “You didn’t choose the Red K. Lex poisoned you, and Lena. You were trying to keep her safe. You didn’t mean to do those things.” 

“But I  _ did _ those things, Alex. And I  _ wanted  _ to do them.” She pulls her hand from the older alpha’s, feeling like she doesn’t deserve the warmth of sibling camaraderie right now. 

“Sometimes I want to kick Brainy in the balls.” Alex shrugged, smiling lopsided. “We are none of us perfect. Even Supers. And besides,” she takes Kara’s hand again and pushes at her thumb, gently. “You have nothing to apologize for. Everything’s okay now. No one here is hurt or injured and all the buildings downtown are intact.”

“So we’re home? Earth-38?” Kara’s heart tightens. “Did Lena’s plan work?”

“Almost. We’re back on Earth Prime, but the real one this time. Not the Lex-generated version. Lena’s plan worked perfectly.” 

“That’s good.” Her heart is tense when she thinks about Lena. The things she did. The things they said. Will she  _ remember _ ? “Is she…”

“Here?” Alex’s smile is growing bigger. She looks almost like herself again. “Yeah I thought you might ask that. She is.”

“Does she…” 

Kara’s about to ask  _ does she remember  _ or maybe  _ does she still have the mark _ —she still hasn’t decided even as the words leave her lips—but then the door opens. And a scent that is so, so sweetly  _ familiar _ rushes to her nose like a welcoming flood. Lena is pushing the door open with her back, holding a tray of DEO cafeteria food in her careful arms. She’s frowning down at the Jello plate, as if warning it not to spill, and she hasn’t looked up yet. But then she does, and  _ oh _ her eyes light up like—-

“ _ Kara!” _

THE END 

***

**Author's Note:**

> Want more? Follow the link in my [ Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/aspidities) for updates and prompts and gay bullshittery the likes of which you’ve never seen


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